Songs of the Moment
by 3tinkgemini
Summary: A Series of Unrelated Drabbles for Your Klaroline Enjoyment. Also found on Tumblr, 3tinkgemini. Chap 39: The Lost Prince and The Eternal Queen (Klaroline Valentine's Gift Exchange) Chap 40: Secrets (NSFW) Chap 41: First story-All Things Mikaelson. Second story-Until Her. Chap 42: Even Though Chap:43 A Room Full of Memories (NSFW)
1. Chapter 1

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So a little introduction to this One-Shot/Drabbles series. Some will be fluffy, some will be sweet. Some will be full of heart breaking angst others will be nothing but NSFW. Some will be AU while others are Canon. We will also have some AH thrown in the mix.

In other words, we will have a touch of everything.

I have a lot of short stories I have been working on while I have been writing my multi-chapter fic _Above All Else_. I will be polishing them up and placing them here once they are ready.

As you might have noticed the title of this series is _Songs of the Moment._ Most of these will have some type of song involved…some may not as well. Kind of depends on my mood and/or the story line. I will promise not to add in song lyrics into every one. No they will not be singing in all of them either. ;) I will only put those types of things in if it is crucial to the story.

If you like a one-shot I write and would like an added part to it please don't hesitate to ask me or tell me!

If you find something you don't like, also please let me know so that I can work on fixing and not making that mistake in future stories.

I am open to prompts and/or ideas anyone would like to see me write about. You can send me a private message about it here ow you can message me on tumblr, same name as here, _3tinkgemini_.

If you would like me to say which genre the newest chapters are to this series at the start of each one please let me know. I will definitely say when it is a NSFW one.

Thank you so much for all your support! And without further ado, go right ahead and click next to read my first installment of _Song of the Moment._

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	2. Perfect Night of Last Loves

Songs for this short story: " _Chandelier"_ by Sia. And " _Highway Don't_ _Care"_ Tim McGraw and Taylor Swift.

Warning: Very emotional. Angst. Grab the tissues. Curl up with your favorite blanket. Just remember, even the worst storm passes to bring out the sun ;)

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It took him longer than he would ever care to admit to figure out just why and how Mikael was here, in New Orleans trading physical blows with him. It was obvious this had the Mystic Falls lot written all over it. He had heard the rumors; Silas had taken over Stefan's life, a group of Travelers causing problems in the small town. He could only hope that with the veil lowered, that she was safe. That without him there no harm would come to…

His thoughts were jarred back to the fight at hand as Mikael, whom he had just thrown across the room, flashed back to him pinning him against the wall. Klaus's eyes widened fearfully as a White Oak stake was poised at his chest, ready to plunge into his heart, to steal his life. Klaus took hold of Mikael's wrists, his teeth clenched with the amount of his effort, trying in vain to hold him off.

"Any last words _Boy_?" Mikael snared in triumph.

The moment the words left his lips, Mikael's eyes blew wide, a pained bloody grunt leaving his mouth before he fell to the floor turning grey instantly.

Klaus stared in stunned silence for a few quick and confused breaths before it registers in his head just who it was that was standing in front of him letting the heart, that once resided inside Mikael's chest, tumble out of her dainty hand with a wet thump to the floor.

"Caroline?" Klaus said in confusion as she wiped the blood off of her hand, her lip curled in disgust, on Mikael's shirt.

Straightening her body back she fluffed her hair, facing him with a smile, though he noticed that her smile did not quite reach her eyes like it would normally.

She held her hand out offering him the White Oak stake with an easygoing, "Hey."

He was amazed at the fact, startled even, that just seconds prior while figuring out that the veil must have dropped, he had wondered for a moment if Caroline was alright. Especially considering that the last time it had dropped she had been attacked by the angry group of witches' hell bent on meting out their revenge for their deaths. It was quick thinking on his part, and a touch of luck that he had arrived just in time, that he had found another use for those ridiculous graduation caps.

Klaus slowly reached his hand out, carefully taking the White Oak stake from her hand. Once it was within his own grasp, he tightened his fist around it so hard blood dripped down his wrist as he stared through hard eyes at his step-father's dead body.

His eyes shot up as Caroline cleared her throat, "So," She drug the one syllable word out as she swung her arms, "How about you put that thing away and take me for a drink?"

Klaus placed the stake in his jacket pocket before folding his hands behind his back with a smirk, "How about you tell me just why you are here Love."

"Hmm." Caroline tilted her head to the side cutely as she swayed her body back and forth, "How about you just thank me for helping you and we get away from the creepy dead body and have that drink before he comes to again?"

Klaus couldn't stop the chuckle that rose out of his chest from leaving his mouth at her adorable demeanor. He stepped over Mikael's dead body holding out his elbow for her to take, a smile lit his face as she linked her arm through his without any hesitation, "I suppose a drink is in order," He said as they walked out onto the street, "It is out thing after all."

Caroline giggled in response, "We don't have a thing."

Klaus's eyebrows furrowed as she delivered the line he had expected from her, though she smiled and teased in the way that was so true to her nature with him, her eyes held a deep fathomless lost quality to them. "So, you never did tell me why you are here Love." Klaus prodded through narrowed eyes.

"I just figured I would stop by and warn you about the whole veil being lowered thing." Caroline shrugged as he led her into a no named bar on the outskirts of town.

"That's an awfully long way to deliver a message Caroline. One I am sure a phone call would have sufficed." He grinned cheekily not believing her excuse as he pulled out a chair for her to sit in at a table off to the side of the room.

Caroline stretched her arms out in front of her on the table with her head cocked to the side, "So are you trying to tell me you would have rather that I called you instead of showing up?"

The waitress stopped by to take their orders before Klaus could respond. Once their glasses of scotch were placed on the table he took a sip before leaning back in his chair with his arm slung over the backrest, "You know how I enjoy your company Caroline." His dimples appeared for a moment as he smiled watching her duck her head with a slight blush, "But I can't shake the feeling this impromptu visit has something more behind it than just a heads up to a friend."

Caroline was saved from answering as the DJ announced they were beginning the lineup for the evening's karaoke contest. A mourn filled sigh left her as she watched the first singer begin their choice of song, "Did you know I love to sing?" She said almost absentmindedly.

Klaus decided that since she was here, right where he wanted her to be, he had the rest of the evening and hopefully the next morning as well to discover her secrets, so he would play along with her game of deflection for the time being. "No I did not, Love." He took in how her melancholy eyes watched the amateur performers, waving his hand towards the stage, "Why don't you show them what you've got then?" He suggested casually.

Caroline's head twisted back towards him, her gaze shocked at first until it turned speculative. Running her finger over the rim of her glass she looked at him from beneath her long lashes, "Ok I will." Klaus's dimples deepened with her agreement. "And I think I just found a way for you to replay me for helping you tonight."

Klaus leaned towards her with his elbows on the table, "Isn't that what the drink was for?"

Caroline shook her head back and forth sending her blonde hair flying around her with a charming grin.

"Alright Love, I'll bite. Just what is it I can do to show you my gratitude?"

"After I sing my song, you have to sing one with me." She said with a grin and a raised eyebrow, clearly bating him, sure he would decline.

He was tempted to, his eyes quickly scanned the bar checking to see if any of Marcel's followers were anywhere in sight. He found no other supernatural beings other than the two of them in the establishment. He glanced back at Caroline sitting across from him, she obviously was ready for him to tell her no, well now, wasn't she in for a shock, he thought as he leaned back in his chair once more lifting his glass to his mouth with a smirk. "Alright Love, you're on."

"Really?" Caroline's face lit up as she pulsed excited energy.

If he had known all he would have had to do to earn such a look for her was to get on a damn stage and sing a little song with her he would have done so ages ago. He tilted his glass in her direction, "If it's what the Lady wants."

Caroline clapped her hands together in glee before standing from the table, "I'll go sign us up then!"

Klaus chuckled with a shake of his head as he watched her bounce across the room to the table at the side of the make-shift stage. He was surprised when he overheard Caroline compelling the announcer to move them up on the list. Things just weren't sitting right with him over Caroline's sudden appearance in New Orleans, her refusal to give him a straight answer and now she was compelling the humans around her. Something he knew she was avidly against. He tucked this new and quite frankly disturbing knowledge away as she took the stage with a sunny smile, yet haunted eyes. Her enthrallingly beautiful voice captured his attention fully, along with the rest of the establishment.

" _I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier  
I'm gonna live like tomorrow doesn't exist  
Like it doesn't exist  
I'm gonna fly like a bird through the night, feel my tears as they dry  
I'm gonna swing from the chandelier, from the chandelier"_

"But I'm holding on for dear life, won't look down won't open my eyes  
Keep my glass full until morning light, 'cause I'm just holding on for tonight  
Help me, I'm holding on for dear life, won't look down won't open my eyes  
Keep my glass full until morning light, 'cause I'm just holding on for tonight  
On for tonight"

Caroline lowered the microphone to her side with her eyes closed inhaling a breath before the crowds enthusiastic applause grabbed her attention. A smile lit her face as she took a bow towards the audience. Standing tall once more she cocked an eyebrow at Klaus across the room.

He shook his head with a chuckle, downing the his drink he stood and surveyed the room as he walked to the stage, rolling his eyes, glad to see no one who could report this spectacle back to his or Marcel's followers were present. He jogged up the short set of stairs to join her on stage, the things he did for this woman stunned him to his very core. Never in his thousand years living on this Earth did he imagine himself standing on a stage preparing to involve himself in a round of karaoke. He read the name of the song on the screen in front of them, turning to her with a raised eyebrow and a smirk.

Caroline grinned as she handed him a microphone whispering, "If you don't know the song just follow along with the words."

Taking the microphone from her hands he leaned in and whispered back, "Don't worry about me, Love. This song has been quiet popular, I've heard it a time or two."

As the DJ was getting the song and the prompter ready Caroline whispered to him in a quick panic, "You can sing right?"

As the guitar sounded through the speakers Klaus just smirked devilishly raising the microphone to his lips and began to sing. Caroline's jaw nearly hit the floor at the sound of his voice, though his voice was nowhere near the country twang of Tim McGraw, his British accent gave the song an alluring flare that drew enchanted gasps not only from the audience, but from her as well.

Their voices blended together as if they had done this a million times before. The flirtatious energy that swirled around them was felt by all present, though the two of them noticed no one but each other.

Klaus felt the words she sang along with him resonate through him straight down into his soul.

" _The highway don't care if you're coming home  
But I do, I do."_

"I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby  
I can't live without you, I can't live without you, baby, baby"

As the last note faded away her shining blue eyes stayed locked on his own questioning ones. He couldn't help but feel her choice in songs had some type of deeper hidden meaning, one that, while he was nervous to, he could not wait to find out.

The roar and whistles from the crowd pulled their attention away from one another. Klaus smiled deeply as he grabbed her hand taking a bow with her. She smiled just as strongly back at him before pulling him off the stage and out of the bar.

Walking out of the bar side by side, both smiled ear to ear at the positive reception their performance had gathered. Caroline threw her arms out to her sides and tilted her head back as she twirled in circles, "That was so much fun!" Making Klaus laugh deeply at her antics.

Her giggles stopped suddenly as she stood still allowing her arms to fall slowly to her sides with her head still facing the night sky, "You can't see that many stars here."

Klaus chuckled, "Yes well, all the city lights here will do that Caroline. Even the lights of Mystic Falls drowned out the true beauty of the night sky."

Caroline looked at the sky then back at him with a wistful sigh, "I've always wanted to see the Northern Lights."

They walked side by side down the crowed sidewalk, Klaus latched onto her wistful tone, his own tone painting a beautiful picture of what he could offer her, "There is a place in Northern Finland that goes by the name the Aurora Chalet. Upon your arrival, they hand you an alarm that will sound once the Northern Lights appear. I've been there once or twice throughout the years, though regretfully now it has turn into more of a tourist destination. If you really want to enjoy them without running the risks of standing within a crowd of people I would suggest going to Tromsø in Norway. There are far less people and far more stretches of open land to take in the spectacular views."

"Yeah, maybe someday I guess." Caroline said and again Klaus was confused by her almost depressed longing tone and that lost look in her fathomless blue eyes.

Klaus cleared his throat, his concern about just what brought such a look and demeanor about her deepened with every moment he spent with her. He was determined more than ever to discover just what had her looking so helpless and empty. "While even I cannot give you the Northern Lights on such short notice," He grinned as she rolled her eyes knocking her shoulder into his, "my home is just outside of the city and there is a fabulous view that can be seen of the night sky from there." He told her almost in a hesitant question instead of the statement he meant it to be.

Caroline stopped walking and turned to gaze at his face in deep contemplation while she nibbled on her lower lip. What was running through that marvelous mind of hers he may never know as he stood there holding his breath prepared for her standard refusal.

Caroline's face relaxed at the exact moment she uttered a soft, "Alright, let's go."

Her giggles at his dumbfounded reaction were music to his ears. This was the first time this evening that her laughter actually reached her eyes.

"Well then," He said before he tilted his head down giving her a scorching look with his arm cocked out for her to take, "Let's be off then shall we?"

As soon as she took hold of him he pulled her, flashing them through the outskirts of the city, wide smiles decorated their faces as their laughter rang through the air around them.

Klaus led her into his bedroom as he released her arm, walking away from her side to open the glass doors on the other side of his room. When he turned to say something to her he discovered she was not beside him but standing by the main door to his room with her arms cross as her foot tapped incessantly, looking pointedly between him and the bed.

Klaus raised his hands, "I promise I have no ungentlemanly intentions here Love." He waved his hand behind him, "The view is best from my private balcony."

She eyed him critically before relaxing her stance and following him to the open balcony doors and out to take in the view. "You weren't kidding about having the best view were you?" She breathed out in awe over all the stars that lit the night sky over top a backdrop of a secluded wooded area.

Klaus leaned against the railing next to her, his arm brushing hers as he spoke reverently while gazing at her, "I've always prided myself on having nothing but the best of everything."

Caroline shifted her body uncomfortably, picking up on just what he was implying. Her eyes glanced around the balcony to avoid looking into his blue eyes that always seemed to strike her to her core every time. She cleared her throat hoping to find a distraction to the way he was making her feel. "Speaking of the best, there isn't really anywhere to sit and relax while we enjoy the sights. But I have an idea." She said before flashing quickly into his room, reappearing within seconds dumping an arm full of his blankets and pillows from off his bed.

He watched in amusement as she arranged the blankets in the corner of the balcony floor, resting the pillows tightly together against the wall before laying down and gifting him with a gentle smile and a wave of her hand in invitation.

Klaus licked his lips as he laid down beside her, his heart virtually beating out of his chest as she curled up against him with her head resting on his shoulder. He tried to fight down the kaleidoscope of emotions that her simple gesture had brought about within him as he slowly curled his arm around her shoulder, breathing a silent sigh of contentment when she snuggled further into his embrace.

They silently gazed at the stars together for a while, a short time later she started randomly asking him about the different constellations that he knew of. His fingers spun the locks of her golden hair between them as he lifted his other hand to point out the ones that had stuck with him throughout the centuries.

She was lulled into a peaceful daze as she listened to his voice tell her all the stories he knew of the stars in the sky. Her body burrowed deeper into his own, her head sliding down to rest on his chest, her arm curling across his abdomen.

Her movement caught him off guard causing his speech to drift away as he tentatively wrapped both his arms around her holding her closer to him and enjoying this rare bout of pleasant companionship with her.

The only sounds to be heard were their calm and steady breaths and the sounds of the nocturnal life of the swamp lands around them.

"You know, I've always wanted to take a trek through the Rainforest." Caroline's quiet voice hovered around them.

Klaus chuckled softly running his fingers up and down her spine, "What brought on that thought Love?"

Caroline shrugged her shoulders, "I guess listening to all the sounds coming from the woods maybe? That and when I was in sixth grade we each had to mentor a third grader and work on a project about the different climates and ecosystems of the world. We chose the Rainforest. Ever since I've always wanted to see and feel all the things I had learned about." She was quiet for a moment before she admitted softly as her fingers drew circles over his chest, "I've never told anyone that before."

Klaus grinned deeply towards the sky at the privilege of being the only one to know this about her. His voice was equally as soft as he said, "I'm honored to be the first you've told." He swallowed past the lump in his throat, daring to take a chance, "I'd be equally as honored if you would allow me to take you there Caroline."

"One can only dream." She said cryptically, her tone dripping with melancholy.

At first Klaus focused only on her words themselves. He was stunned into a blissful daze at the fact that she had not flat out denied him or rejected his offer. It took a while for his mind to overshadow his elated emotions and pick up on just what she _had_ said as well as the infliction her tone had implied.

Clenching his jaw, knowing that she would put up a fight or close off from him completely, he demanded, "What is going on Caroline? You show up here out of the blue, and while I am not complaining about how we have spent our time together, I want to know what has you feeling and looking so completely lost."

When she did not respond to him he leaned his head up to look at her face, "Caroline. Answer…me." His voice started off harsh only to end on a soft sigh as he found her fast asleep in his arms.

Klaus let his head fall back down to the pillows beneath him, placing a tender kiss to the top of her golden blonde head, "I suppose there will be time for explanations in the morning."

Holding her sweet delectable body close to his, he found that there was no place on this Earth he would rather be then here, with her. No matter the cause behind her appearance this evening, no matter the reasons behind her melancholy ways, he could not help but feel thankful of the fact that she had sought him out to comfort her. That she was finally opening herself up to him in more ways than just their delightful romp in the woods outside of Mystic Falls.

He leaned the side of his face down to rest against the top of her head falling asleep listening to the sound of her breathing and reveling in the warmth her body provided.

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Klaus woke up the following morning, his heart felt full in a way it never had before as the memories of the night he spent with Caroline played through his mind. He cracked his eyes open to discover what he had already known but had hoped he was wrong, he was alone. The evidence of her presence was still there giving him hope as he stood and made his way back into his bedroom that just maybe she was still around and last night was not just a wonderful dream.

" _One can only dream."_

Her voice floated through his mind causing a slight panic to rise in his chest.

Klaus listened carefully throughout the house; dejectedly he discovered that he was there alone. A forlorn sigh escaped his lips as his shoulders slumped at the realization that she was long gone. His eyes narrowed as he noticed a piece of parchment laying on the center of his desk in the corner of his bedroom. He knew he had not left it there which could only mean one thing; Caroline had left him a letter. Drawing up his courage he slowly walked around the desk.

He instantly recognized Caroline's penmanship at his name scrawled across the half folded paper. Knowing her, this inconspicuous letter she had left him could say anything. This little scrap of paper could hold the power to break him or it could just possibly hold the keys to his heart.

He tried to tamper down the hope that it would read that she had only stepped out for a moment but shall return shortly. The odds were that it would read something more along the lines of last night was a mistake, don't come looking for me.

Klaus scoffed, there was a fat chance in hell that he would not. After the carefree night they had spent together there was no way in hell that he would allow her to just brush it off as nothing. He was done with her denial of the connection between them. He was done with her hiding behind smoke screens of so-called plans that did not involve him. But the most important thing to him at the moment was that he would not allow her to run from whatever demons seemed hell bent on chasing her causing the light he so loved about her to dim. He would chase her to the ends of the Earth if only to help her though whatever was happening to her.

He slowly sat himself in the high-backed leather chair behind the desk, dragging the moment of truth out. He rolled his eyes at himself for just prolonging the inevitable; it was just a damn piece of paper. Steeling himself, prepared to find that she wanted to forget their night together, the breath left him in a rush as he read her opening line,

 _Klaus,_

 _Last night was one of the best, most freeing nights I have ever spent in my entire life. No, wait, that's not exactly right. It was THE best. I never knew you could be so relaxed and carefree. You should be that way more often Klaus, it suits you. I'm serious._

 _Thank you for showing me that side of you. Out of everything you have ever given me, from drawings to bracelets. Boyfriend (well, ex but you get the point) to mini-fridges. Gifting me with the chance to see this side of you was the best thing. And we already know you only have the best things in life. It is the one thing I will cherish the most out of everything you have ever given me. More than any other gift I have ever received from anyone._

 _I will never forget it, no matter where I might end up. I wish I had more time to write. I wish I could curl back up next to you and wake up as the sunrises together. I wish I had the courage to wake you up and explain. But I don't, on either count. And it wouldn't matter much in the end anyways. It would only hurt us both that much more._

 _I know it's not fair of me to ask, but I have something I need you to take care of for me since I am sure you are the only one that will even notice for some time yet. I need you to go to the meadow just outside of the falls back in Mystic Falls._

 _You'll know what to do when you get there._

 _I'm sorry. So very sorry to put this on you Klaus._

 _Thank you for thinking of me last night. You have no idea how much it meant to me that even while you were faced with danger, your thoughts drifted to me._

 _Thank you for showing me what you being my last love could have been like, even if it was only for a night. I hope you take the time to find a last love of your own someday. You are worth it Klaus, please don't ever forget or lose track of that._

 _Love,_

 _Caroline._

Klaus jumped up dropping the letter from his hands as if it burnt him. His jaw clenched as he willed his tears to disappear as denial set it. A strangled noise rose from his throat as the agony he did not want to feel began to take over.

His eyes were drawn to the letter laying innocently on his desk. Even at a distance he could see the water marks on the paper caused by her tears.

"NO!" His painful yell echoed through the empty house.

Flashing through his home he tried to find her scent, find the path she took on her way out so that he could follow her to the ends of the earth. He found what his heart fervently prayed to be false, but knew in the back of his tormented mind to be the truth.

The trail started and ended in his room, right there at the desk that held the letter whose words were not the key to his heart as he had hoped, but the key to his damnation.

His knees hit the floor as his legs gave out from under him. An agonizing animalistic bellow of pain and rage left him uncontrollably.

Her most recent scent came from the bed she had made them on his balcony. Her face full of smiles and giggles that had not quite reached her eyes flashed through his addled brain. That lost haunted look he could not decipher but thought, stupidly thought, he had more time to discover its meaning. His watery eyes followed the path she would have walked to his desk. His anguished gaze stopped there and stared.

How long had she been awake while he slept peacefully unaware of what was about to come? How much time had he wasted by slumbering when he could have been with her? Worse still, how much time had passed between the moment she disappeared before his eyes had opened?

He clutched his chest at the sharp excruciating pain that lanced through his heart at his thoughts.

He recalled thinking just moments before reading her letter that destroyed his world that he would have followed her to the ends of the earth. He scoffed at how unknowingly correct he had been.

The veil had dropped last night. She had shown up right as he had thought of her, worried for her safety. She had stayed with him, skirting his questions on why she was here. He was too elated with her presence to think more of it, to press the issue, to put the pieces together. To see that she was giving them one night. One perfect night together. Opening up to him in a way he had only dreamed of. Laughing together, simply holding each other in their arms. He had foolishly thought that they had more time.

His head shook mechanically back and forth, "What a fool I was. A damn bloody fool." His voice cracked even though he spoke just below a whisper. The impact of what was happening swirled around him, caging him in and weighing him down in anguish.

He had no idea how long he knelt frozen with tears pouring down his face before he realized she was counting on him to take care of her…That strangled noise left him once more…her body.

Of all the people she could have spent her last night with, why him? Was it only because he had thought of her? Was he truly the only one who worried over her? Was he really the only one that could see her for who she really was? See her true value and potential?

He latched onto the fact that no matter the reason, she had chosen him. That she was relying on him to complete this heart shattering task for her.

He lifted his weak and heavy body from the floor, trying to draw on every bit of strength and determination that he had garnered over his years.

Making his way over to his desk on stiff and wobbly legs, he reverently picked up her letter carefully laying it on his bed before he pulled a framed piece of art off the wall. Wiping the stray tears from under his eyes, he opened the back of the frame to removed the priceless, but worthless to him, art from its frame to replace it with her letter.

It was worth so much more to him than anything he had ever owned. It was the first love letter he had ever received. It was from his last love.

He trailed his fingers over the glass of the frame, choking down yet another round of tears that he knew would overwhelm him if he allowed them to start again.

Turning away desolately, he snatched his phone from the side table. Closing his eyes to attempt and pull himself together, he cleared his tight throat and with a deep shaky breath he hit a contact in his list.

"Mark. Have the jet fueled and ready to depart within an hour." His voice was hoarse but he knew the man on the other end would not dare ask why, let alone mention it.

"Destination Sir?"

"Mystic Falls."

Hanging up he was thankful for small favors. Those he had on his payroll knew well enough to do as he asked without question or delay.

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He barely remembered the flight or the drive to the area surrounding the falls. But everything seemed so wretchedly clear now that he was here.

His steps were slow and shaky. Never had he hoped for something to be nothing but a trick before than in this moment. He wished that this was just her playing the distraction to his beast once more. She could jump out from behind a tree, stabbing him with a White Oak stake and he would die happily with a smile on his face knowing she was alive and well.

But that was not the case at all.

The surrounding woods were deathly quiet, as if the world was mourning the loss of something so precious and bright that not even the wind could move under its heavy oppression.

Then he spotted a bit of color that did not belong to nature itself.

There on the ground, just a few feet in front of him, lay a body on its side facing away from him. Her blonde hair fanned out behind her as if she was asleep. She looked as though any moment she would move and berate him for any number of the transgressions she felt he had caused.

Kneeling down beside her he reached out a trembling hand touching her shoulder. His eyes slamming shut on contact as he felt her stiff frigid form. With eyes still pressed shut he rolled her body over. Steeling himself he cracked his eyes open a fraction and what he was met with, even prepared as he was, had them flying open. An excruciating roar of pain left him, so loud and raw that his throat burned from the sound as his heart cracked and peeled.

Her eyes were closed, her skin veined and greyed over. An offensive earth shattering stake was lodged within her pure heart.

Cradling her ice cold body to his own he wept and cursed the Gods for taking her from him before they even had a chance to begin.

He pleaded and begged for her to be returned to him before he sat numbly on the forest floor, her motionless body clutched close to him.

He did not notice when the sun rose or when it had set only to rise once more.

His eyes stared unfocused at nothing around him, for there was nothing for him any longer. No hope of her showing up at his door. No Rome, no Paris or Tokyo. No Northern Lights. No treks through the Rainforest that she had longed to see. No more songs. No genuine beauty remained in this world with her gone. With her gone nothing but grey and black existed.

 _And blood_ …the thought whispered through his mind…gallons of blood to be spilt in attempts to smother this unparalleled agony he felt.

His heart pounded in his chest, his breath leaving through his clenched teeth in harsh burning breaths. Why should there be life and light when hers no longer existed? Never had he contemplated flipping his switch before now, never had it even drew his attention. He had always prided himself on being in control.

But why have control when she was not here? Why concern himself over trivial things as human life is she was not here to share his own life with? Why should others of the world be allowed to have joy, love and laughter when she was no longer here to do the same?

Seconds away from doing what he had vowed to himself to never be weak enough to do everything stopped.

A hummingbird was there fluttering steadily in his face. Its tiny heart puttering like a machine gun.

It was her. He knew it was her.

Reason and sanity took hold of the small functional part of his brain that was left.

She would not want this. Blood spilt in her name. Her mother. She would want her mother to know.

After reverently carrying her cold body to his vehicle, he placed her across the back seat ready to cover her with the blanket from the truck. He stopped for a moment staring at the stake still lodged in her chest. Gnashing his teeth together he removed the offending item from her chest, tossing it from his hand to the floorboard of the car. Tucking the blanket around her body he leaned down squeezing his eyes shut, placing a tender kiss to her forehead before covering her face as well.

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Klaus pulled up in front of the Forbes residence parking his car next to the curb. He slumped back into his seat, trying and failing miserably to find the proper way to explain this to her Mother. He rubbed both of his temples with his eyes closed, thinking that he had no idea how he had made it this far, how he was even functioning at this point. He could only surmise it was the fact that this was his last gift for her. He gulped harshly at the thought, still warring within himself that she was even gone.

Klaus released a pent up sigh, Caroline was counting on him to handle this. She was right to apologize to him for putting him through this. The last time he had felt this type of suffering was when he had carried another loved one's dead body back to its mother. He shut the thoughts down as soon as they started. He could not afford to think of Henrik right now. His eyes drifted towards the house on his right, not when he had to attempt to cope with telling the Sheriff of Caroline's death.

Klaus somehow found himself standing at the front door of the Forbes home, taking what was an attempt at a deep calming breath, he raised his fist knocking twice.

The door opened reviling her Mother dressed in her uniform.

Liz crossed her arms over her chest leaning against the doorframe, "Klaus." She said with a nod of her head, "You look like hell."

He breathed out a humorless chuckle with a quick shake of his head, so this is where Caroline had got her habits of speaking bluntly from.

The phone ringing from inside drew the Sheriff's attention. Moving to answer the phone she spoke to Klaus over her shoulder, "I have to take this but come on in. Not that you need an invitation since you've already been invited in."

"Thank you Sheriff Forbes. Though I would never intrude upon your hospitality."

She raised an eyebrow at him as she picked up the phone.

Klaus chuckled, "Well again anyhow."

Klaus wandered into the living room, not paying attention to the phone call happening in the kitchen. Though once he took a look around he wished he had stayed on the porch. Here in this room he was surrounded not only by pictures of Caroline at different stages of her life, but her scent was still strong here. Catching his trembling lip between his teeth, he took sharp fast breaths trying to center himself so as not to lose it before he had even told the Sheriff of her only daughter demise.

Liz's footsteps echoed into the room just as he mercifully gain a hold on his riotous emotions.

"Sorry about that, with everything that went down last night this town is still picking up the pieces."

"I can come back later if you are needed elsewhere." Klaus cringed at himself, he knew it was a cop-out, but if he could delay this forever he would.

Liz waved her hand in dismissal, "No it's fine. Besides Caroline told me you would be stopping by so I've just been waiting for you that way I wouldn't get too tied up with official police business." She laughed, "You know Caroline, when she gives you a task to handle you have to follow her instructions to the letter or risk a full out Caroline reaming."

Klaus furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, speaking slowly, "Yes I am well aware." Shaking his head, "I'm sorry, but you said Caroline told you to expect me?"

"Yeah last night while all hell was breaking loose." Liz shook her head and laughed, "She came barreling in the house yelling for me. She damn near broke my bones with the way she hugged me."

Klaus bit his tongue, she had come to tell you goodbye, he fought down the urge to say.

"She started rambling away about all these things she wanted to do in her life. About how many wrong choices she had made. About promises she should have never asked certain people to make." She told him looking directly at him pointedly.

Klaus's eyes widened as his mouth fell open then snapped shut. He wanted nothing more than to ask what else Caroline had said to her mother. He was beyond grateful that there was not a need, as the Sheriff continued to explain with prompting.

"Yeah, she told me about the two of you. A little more than I cared to ever know as her mother." She grumbled under her breath bringing a blush to Klaus's face.

Liz sighed, "She started flying through the house packing up a box of things, ranting about how she had to get out of this town for a while. About how she had to see you." She raised a brow looking straight at him again. "All of a sudden out of nowhere her head shot up. Next thing I knew she was closing that box up," She said as she pointed to the box sitting on the floor next to the front door, "Saying there wasn't time, she had to leave now and that when you stopped by to make sure you took that box with you."

Klaus's thoughts ran rampantly as he stared at the box Caroline clearly wanted him to have. Why would she tell these things to her mother? Why not tell her the truth? Was this not what she had sent him here for? Of course not, he scoffed to himself. Caroline would want to save those she loved from the pain and heartache her death would cause. Did she not know that by covering this up it would only hurt them more in the end? And why have _him_ shoulder this horrible burden on his own? Did she really care so little for him that she would take away the chance, whether he would use it or not, to share his grief with those closest to her?

"So I get that Caroline took off in a hurry, but is she with you now? Why didn't she come inside too?"

"No she is not with me." Klaus nearly spat.

Liz looked at him strangely, as if wondering why he was having this type of reaction. He was tempted to tell her just for spite. Only she spoke before he could.

"Look, I'm not sure what is going on with you two exactly. And I know for a fact that her friends will not be as…supportive of her as she is with them, but you can count me in your corner Klaus."

Klaus's head moved quickly from the box to look at Caroline's Mother, blinking in stunned silence.

Liz chuckled, "Yeah shocked the hell out of me too." She stepped closer to him, placing her hand on his arm. His gaze flickered down to the place of contact and back up to her eyes in shocked awe. "From what I could catch from her fast paced rambles that I was able to piece together last night after she flashed out of her like the hounds of hell were biting at her feet, was that she really truly cares for you." At his skeptical look she explained, "Come on, I've been a police officer for a long time and I know how to read people. If she didn't have real feelings for you she never would have told me all that she did. You know I asked her one question before she left, did she really think that you were worth it. Do you want to know what she told me?"

Klaus tried to control the trembling of his lower lip and the tears that threatened to spill over from his eyes, "What did she say?" He croaked out.

Liz smiled in awe over his reaction. Caroline definitely wasn't lying when she said there was so much more to Klaus then meets the eye and that he deserved a chance. "She told me that you were the only person in the entire world that ever put her first. You made her want to live. To really live her life for herself. That she wished more than anything she hadn't wasted so much time hiding from her true desires just to appease her friends. That the events of last night made her see what she was too blind to see before, what she was running from. That you were worth anything and everything."

Klaus swallowed past that ever present lump in his throat, a single tear made its way past his defenses and trickled down his stubble covered cheek.

Liz drew herself up to her intimidating police Sheriff height, folding her arms over her chest she asked him sternly, "Now, my question for you is, how do you feel about my daughter?"

Klaus battled down all the raging emotions rushing through him, clearing his throat he told her in a tone that showed his passion and his unwavering emotions when it came to Caroline, "I love her, Sheriff."

Liz's mouth dropped open with a surprised gasp. Her eyes searched his, even as his tone left no room for doubt to cloud her mind over his confession.

She walked over to the box picking it up and then turning placing it in his outstretched arms with a smile, "Ok then. Keep her happy alright? And I know she said she just needs some space from everything, time to be with you without any of the drama or influence from home and all that. She told me that she ditched her phone too, so could you tell her I love her? That I miss her and to call me when you both get back into civilization?"

Klaus swallowed down the emotions at the beautiful picture the Sheriff's words painted of a world that would never exist for him. Unable to speak without fear of breaking down he simply nodded his head and walked towards the front door, ready to leave this Hell and step into the next one of her dead body resting in the backseat of his car.

"Oh and Klaus?"

He grinded his teeth together and stopped, he wanted nothing more than to get out of here. He _needed_ to get out of here before the Sheriff figured out that something was just not right. Plastering a pleasant smile on his face he turned in the open door with one foot on the porch ready to flash away from whatever she had to say next that would more than likely cut through him with the force of a thousand blades.

"Yes Sheriff?"

"I think it would be alright if you started to call me Liz." She said with a smirk.

Klaus nodded his head in response, "I would be honored Sher…" He cleared his throat, "Liz."

She smiled softly and nodded in return before closing the door behind him, allowing him a moment to close his eyes and grip the box tightly to his body.

Klaus placed the box in the front seat of the car, not daring to look towards the backseat and see the harsh reality of his world. He drove mindlessly to the airfield where his crew was waiting and ready to take him back to New Orleans.

As he arrived two men came to the car, ready to assist him in carrying what he had with him to the plane. It wouldn't be the first time they carried a wrapped up body aboard. Before their hands could touch her he shouted, "Keep your filthy paws off of her! I will handle this myself go make use of yourselves and ready for takeoff."

Once they scurried out of his sight he moved robotically, carrying her body first into the plane laying her gently across the seats before flashing back out for the box. He set the box down and sat next to it on the seats facing directly in front of where her body laid. His body leaned forward, elbows pressing onto his knees, his head dropped into his waiting hands as his fingers gripped and pulled at his hair.

He could not say whether the takeoff was smooth or rough, as he felt none of it. After what felt like hours, but was probably close to mere minutes, the plane hit a pocket of turbulence causing the box beside him to shift, hitting him in his side.

"Why are you doing this to me?" He rasped out as he lifted his bloodshot eyes to her prone body.

He did not want to open the box. He did not want to know what she had so obviously left for him. Running his tongue over his lips, he groaned as he lost the fight to leave the box alone and reached over tearing the tape from the top.

The instant the box opened her scent engulfed him, making him close his eyes in painful defeat. Inside he found a treasure trove of all things Caroline, along with a box filled with nothing but the cruelest pain he had ever felt.

It was filled with every item that ever held any type of connection between the two of them.

The blue dress he had gifted her with for his Mother's Ball.

The headpiece she had worn during the Decade Dance.

A piece of his ripped shirt from the one and only time they had ever made love.

The empty box that once held the bracelet she had so spitefully toss back at his feet.

Surprisingly, much to his awe and shock, the tag that simply read, _From Klaus_ , was there. Along with the invitation to the Ball.

Next he uncovered a picture frame laying upside down in the box, not daring to breathe he lifted it with a shaking hand flipping it over to find the drawing her had gifted her held within it.

He stared at it in speechless wonder. She held this in such high esteem that she deemed it necessary to place it in a frame.

Maybe he was wrong. Looking around him at the precious items that told their story he realized that he could have been wrong in his earlier thoughts while standing in her home with her Mother.

Maybe she didn't just come to him to spare her loved ones the pain of her death. Maybe she came to him because _he_ …he gulped down; trembling at the thought…maybe she came because he was one of her loved ones as well.

"Why are you haunting me Caroline? What is the purpose of all this if you are not here and will never be here again?" His voice cracked as his tears fell for what seemed like a never ending stream of throbbing anguish.

His mind wandering as he wept over her loss, clutching the frame to his chest as if it would hold him together. He had heard of spells throughout the years of resurrecting loved ones, but to the best of his knowledge, and he counted himself as one of the most intelligent minds in the world, they were lost in time. The odds of finding such a spell were slim to none. More so, they would be next to impossible to find. Harder even than waiting for a doppelganger to be born then scouring the Earth to find her.

In short, it was a hopeless endeavor.

Caroline was lost to him forever.

He growled as the plane hit another bout of turbulence making that blasted box of torture knock into him once more.

He set the frame on the seat next to him, ready, no matter how childish is was, to tear the bloody thing to shreds. He yanked the box into his hands scoffing as he felt something inside it shift. What knew form of torture did she have in store for him next?

Angrily he slammed the box to the floor at his feet, not even looking as he reached in to pull out an object wrapped in a white cloth. The scent of her perfume hit his nostrils as he found that the cloth was the wrap she had worn the night of the Ball as they spoke by the horse out in front of his home.

Growling he harshly unwrapped the object, mentally cursing her for all that she was putting him through.

"A book Love. Really? You honestly think I would care to read…"

His breath stopped.

His bloodshot blue eyes widened.

His heart skipped a beat before nearly pounding out of his chest.

A wickedly proud and triumphant grin grew over his haggard face.

With his head still facing the book in his hands, Klaus's eyes flicked up to glance at her covered body, "So much more than a pretty face, Love."

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I eagerly await your words, you know, cause I am a great big nerd! ;)


	3. Three Words Every Woman Wants To Hear

Ok, so this is a little fluffy and kind of I guess a crack-fic as well as AH. I saw this meme on Facebook the other day and this is what came of it. We kind of follow Caroline through a hectic day of being a stay at home mom and wife. I took some things that happen in my everyday life and added them in. My kids both picked the names of the Klaroline children in this story. I hope you can relate to this, I hope it makes you laugh.

 **Sky, Guest reviewer on Perfect night of Last Loves,** Thank you! I am happy to hear you found it heartbreaking but beautiful! And YES There will be a part two some day soon!

Now I bring you, **The Three Words Every Woman Wants To Hear.**

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Caroline cracked her eye open with a groan as her alarm sounded. Without looking, her arm reached over from her spot on the bed, hitting the snooze before drifting back off to sleep.

Vaguely, in what seemed only seconds later, she recognized a sound coming from beside her where her alarm clock sat. Her hand flailed out beside her in attempts to stop the sound from pulling her completely from her much needed rest. The watery sound finally registered in her mind causing her to pick her head up from her pillow as her dazed sleep deprived eyes lifted to her eight year old son.

"Mommy, you said to make sure you got up."

"Ok Sam, I'm up." She said still laying on the bed.

"I tried to wake up Claudia but she doesn't like to listen to me. Ever." Samuel kept talking to force her to stay awake. He smirked as his Mother sat up; it was a nice little trick his Daddy had taught him.

Caroline groaned as she sat up in the bed, "I know Bud, don't take it to heart." She stood from the bed ruffling his curly hair that was so much like his Father's when he let it grow, "From what your Dad tells me little sisters never like listening to their older brothers. Go ahead and head back downstairs and I'll be down in a minute to make breakfast."

Caroline closed the door to the bathroom of their master suite, flinching as she flicked the lights on. She changed into the yoga pants, bra and sweatshirt she had left out the night before, as she did every school night. She remembered when she was young there was this one girl whose Mom always stood at the door watching her daughter get onto the bus wearing a big hideous pink fluffy robe and slippers, a yapping little dog at her slippered feet as she waved goodbye wishing her daughter a great day. Even Caroline had cringed in embarrassment for the beat red faced blushing girl. When she had become a Mother herself, she had vowed to never embarrass her children in such a way. Throwing her hair up in an easy ponytail she left her room to wake the sleeping monster.

Sitting on the bed next to her sleeping six year old daughter she gently began brushing her hair off her tiny cherub face, "Come on Sweetie. It's time to get ready for school." Klaus always teased them about just how alike they were, not only in their looks, but when it came to not being the best morning people. The Mother and daughter always rolled their eyes at that, causing him to laugh deeply. Not everyone could be up and ready to go in the mornings, especially compared to Father and son who could roll out of bed with ease.

Grateful for the small favor that it had only taken five minutes to get her daughter up and out of bed, she set her daughter's outfit for the day on the bed next to her so she could head downstairs to start on breakfast.

Caroline groaned hoarsly as she noticed she forgot to turn on the timer on the coffee pot before she went to bed last night. She resigned herself to having to wait the extra fifteen minutes it would take to brew and just start making breakfast without her cup of much needed coffee.

Just as she set the two plates of scrambled eggs and toast down on the table Claudia came bouncing into the room.

"I don't know why you won't just listen to me when I say it's time to get ready for school. Why do you always have to wait for Mom to tell you?" Samuel said upset as his sister sat down next to him at the table.

"I don't have to listen to you! You're not Mom or Dad!" She yelled sticking her tongue out at her brother.

"You are such a little brat sometimes." Samuel huffed out under his breath.

"Mom! Sam called me a brat!" Claudia whined over her shoulder with a smirk at her brother.

Pouring her freshly made coffee into her cup, adding in her sugar and creamer Caroline sighed, "Stop fighting and finish your breakfast. And Sam, don't call you sister a brat." She turned to see the smug look on her daughter's face, "And Claudia, it wouldn't be such a bad thing if you would wake up when your brother came in. He is only trying to help."

Both her children looked down at their breakfast muttering a soft, "Sorry Mommy."

Caroline smiled as she sat down at the table with them, sipping her coffee, "It's alright Sweeties." Beginning to feel more like herself and less like a zombie-mom with her coffee hitting her system, her gaze traveled to the clock on the stove. Caroline's eyes widened as she took in the time. "Shoot! We need to move, the bus will be here in twenty minutes!"

"All I have to do Mom is get my shoes and book bag on and I am ready to go." Samuel told his Mother, happy that he was all ready to go.

"Mommy!" Her daughter whined, "You promised to curl my hair this morning!"

"I'm sorry Sweetie but we don't have time." Caroline said trying to placate her daughter.

"But Daddy's coming home today and I want to look pretty for him." Claudia pouted as she hopped of her chair.

Ushering Claudia into the downstairs bathroom to make sure she brushed her teeth and helped her with her hair, Caroline ran a hand over the top of her blonde head, "I know and I'm sorry but we don't have time this morning." She watched in the mirror as her daughter stepped up onto the stool to reach the sink with watering eyes and a wobbly lower lip. "How about we wait and curl your hair after school? That way when you play outside at recess you won't have to worry about it getting all messed up."

Claudia spun to face her Mother holding up her right hand with her pinky finger high in the air, "You promise?"

Giggling she linked their pinkies with a smile, "I promise."

An argument about just how high verses how lower for a proper ponytail, a mad dash for shoes and book bags and a quick kiss to the tops of their heads, while safely inside the house where no one could see, and her children were on the bus and on their way to school.

After watching the bus pull away from the front of the house Caroline picked her coffee cup up to her lips for another much needed drink, only to curl her lip in disgust at its lukewarm temperature.

With a huff and a roll of her eyes she made her way over to dump the coffee down the drain and try again only to step on the dog's tail pulling a painful yipe from him.

"Sorry! Sorry! Sorry!" She rubbed the top of his head gently as she apologized.

Getting back to making her coffee something told her today was going to be one heck of a day.

Not two minutes into juggling between feeding the dog, sipping on her coffee, eyeing that pile of clean laundry that still needed folding from last night and cleaning up breakfast her phone rang.

"Morning Care, how are you this morning?" Elena's voice chirped through her phone.

"Not too bad." Caroline sighed, "Klaus is due home tonight and I have so much to do before that."

"Oh my gosh I have so much to tell you!" Elena said excitedly completely ignoring Caroline's response.

Caroline rolled her eyes as she stacked the dishes in the dishwasher and began wiping the counters and the table down as she listened to Elena. It was so typical of Elena lately to only call her when she had things to say that she couldn't tell others, for obvious reasons of course. Who else could she tell that she was caught between two brothers, brothers that didn't even know they were competing for the same girl, then her best friend?

Caroline had complained about it to Klaus and he had advised her to just open up and be honest with Elena about how she felt their friendship was more one-sided lately. But she had yet to work up the nerve to do so.

Instead she oohed and aahed at the appropriate times, all the while glad they weren't on FaceTime. If they had been she wouldn't have been able to hide the distain that Elena was semi maybe cheating on which ever guy was her real boyfriend with their brother no less. She had no patience in her at the moment to paste a reassuring smile on her face for her friend's drama with her love triangle.

After a solid half hour or more of Elena yammering on nonstop Caroline was finally able to interject. "Yeah that's just crazy 'Lena. But maybe you should think before you act you know? I mean when Klaus and I first met I was dating someone but couldn't help my feelings from starting for him no matter how hard I fought them. I didn't want anyone to get hurt so I…"

"Well I'm home now! Thanks so much for listening Care! You are the best! I have to get some sleep. My patient load last night at work was insane and I am so ready to hit my pillow for some much needed rest before I have to head back to the hospital tonight for my shift. Love ya!"

Hanging up the phone Caroline let out a frustrated growl. Shaking her head away from the thoughts in her mind, knowing she didn't have time to deal with having a pretend argument with Elena. Still she grumbled all the things she would have liked to say to her friend while she popped some bread down in the toaster needing a little something to help soak up all the caffeine.

After smearing a little butter and placing some cut up strawberries on her toast, she sat down and began planning out her day as she nibbled on her breakfast. She needed to shower, get ready, head to the store, finish up the laundry, get the kids back off the bus, make their after school snacks, help them with their homework, start dinner, then Klaus would be home. She sighed as she thought of the very last thing on her list.

Klaus had been gone for almost a week now. He and Elijah had left to scout out some art galleries that wanted to commission Klaus for his work. The last she had spoken to him was right before she went to bed last night. His flight left earlier than she had to be up and, surprise surprise, since she was not a morning person he didn't want to disrupt her rest.

Placing her breakfast dishes in the dishwasher she grabbed her phone flipping through her music to find what she was in the mood for during her shower as she made her way up the stairs. Making her selection and adding it to a playlist she set about getting ready for her shower after she hooked her phone up to her speakers she kept in the bathroom. No sooner than when she turned the water on her phone ringing through the speakers causing her to jump as her heart pounded.

"What the hell!" Placing her hand over her pounding heart she snatched her phone out of the speaker base to stop the loud ringing. Without thinking she accidentally swiped the screen answering the call. "Crap."

"Yes, well a fine good morning to you as well Caroline."

Caroline gritted her teeth of course her Mother-in-Law heard her, "I'm so sorry Esther I really didn't mean to offend you. Honestly, I didn't even look at who was calling me." She tried to make of joke out of it, but knew as always it would fall flat.

"Of course you didn't dear. It's fine I understand how accident prone you can be." Esther responded in a tone used to placate a small child.

Caroline clinched her fist in irritation at Esther's condescending voice. "So what was it you needed?"

"As you are aware I am sure, my sons are arriving home this evening, and I am sure Niklaus will want to spend some time with the children after being gone for so long, so I thought I would call now as to not bother him to remind you of our family brunch this Sunday." Esther's self-righteous voice echoed through her phone.

Caroline was stewing on the inside while her mind was screaming at her, wishing she could just say, _"Yes I remember the damn brunch! We only have it every single Sunday when we are all in town! I've only been married to my husband for nearly eleven years now!"_ But instead she choked it down and said pleasantly, "That's so thoughtful of you Esther. I'm sure Klaus will appreciate the early reminder so he can spend the time with us." She tried so hard not to stress on the word us. "I am running out to the store to get the things to make his favorite dinner tonight, would you like me to bring anything for the brunch?"

"There's no need dear, I am sure the staff can handle it just fine without your help. I must be off now. Don't forget about Sunday."

When the screen went black Caroline turned it on again just to be sure the call had ended before she screamed loudly in exasperation with that woman. No matter what she did she could never win that woman over. She had been able to eventually win Klaus's sister Rebekah over and she was a first class brat! You would think after all the years she had been married to her son, the fact that they had two beautiful children together, she would eventually see Caroline as the good, non-gold-digging person she was.

"Frigid bitch." Caroline muttered as she unlocked her phone ready to plug it back in and start her playlist only to notice the time. "Shit!"

Between listening to Elena, cleaning up the kitchen and then having to deal with her Mother-in-Law, her shower time was drastically reduced. Groaning over the fact that she had to be quick and that she couldn't afford to turn on her favorite playlist to sing along with, loudly, as she normally does when no one is home, she set her phone on the sink, got undressed and stepped into the shower.

Caroline was thankful that at least she didn't need to wax her lady bits. She giggled at herself for even calling them that in her head, but she did have to shave her legs. After shampooing her hair and rinsing it out, she let the conditioner sit in hair as she propped her leg in the built-in bench in the shower and began the process of shaving her legs. Just as she is swiping the razor across the last part to be shaved she cut herself.

"Great." She scoffed as she tried to ignore the burning sensation as she rinsed her hair.

Even with the setback she felt like she is making excellent time. Just to be sure, and because she kind of wanted the confirmation that something was going as planned today, she peeked out of the shower door, wiping her hand on the towel hanging there only to find as she hit the button on her phone the traitorous screen lit up to tell her its already 12:15 in the afternoon.

"Damn it!" With the kids getting home from school at 3:15 that didn't leave her much time to get ready as planned, run to the store and clean up the house before they made it home.

After a quick but thorough scrub down and rinse she was out and ready to go through her daily routine of hair products and make-up. She was relieved that by the time she was ready for the blow dryer her hair had air dried to a soft wave so it won't take much to put it in order.

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Caroline smiled when she looked at the clock as she pulled into the local grocery store parking lot; she had just enough time for a quick trip in to grab what she needed to make Klaus's favorite meal. Getting out of the car and heading towards the door she noticed two white vans with the words, _Genesis Retirement Community_ , written on the sides. This is why she never came to the grocery store on Thursdays! How could she forget! It was the day of the week that the nearby senior retirement center bussed in their residents for their bi-weekly shopping. Groaning she soldiered her way into the store, knowing this was going to be a shopping trip from Hell.

After what was supposed to be nothing but a quick run in and run out trip, it turned into an hour long dodge between walkers, sympathetic smiles with irritated nurses' aids, slow moving shopping carts and a race to try and get around the power wheelchairs that always seemed to be just in the spot she needed to grab something. Finally making it through the registers after the white haired lady in front of her had not only what seemed like a million coupons but also had ads from other stores to price match nearly every item she had bought, Caroline was closing the truck to her car and back on the road towards home.

Wanting to avoid the traffic through town, she cut down a road leading through the county streets. Half way home while beginning to feel like she was getting somewhere with the day, singing along with her music she noticed a road work ahead sign. A frustrated groan left her lips as she hit steering wheel, "Of course, why not repave the road today of all days!" Ten minutes of waiting for the flagger and the single lane traffic, she was finally back to making her way home.

Carrying the grocery bags in her hands she struggled unlocking the door only to cringe as she walked in. The dog got into the damn garbage again! She can't find it in her to yell or be angry at the poor thing, he only does this when Klaus is gone and his pitiful watery eyes are staring up at her from his head resting dejectedly on the floor between his paws.

"I know you miss him, but could you please cut me some slack?"

Stepping around the mess she quickly put the groceries away so they don't spoil. Trying not to think about just how far this little incident would set her back, she began to clean up the mess. After mopping the floor and putting the cleaning supplies away she went outside to take out the garbage bag. Deciding at the last minute to just drag the damn can out to the road now instead of risking the possibility of forgetting to do so later and miss the garbage pick up the next morning.

As she washed her hands with a grossed out look on her face, she really hates having to touch that garbage can, she heard the familiar sound of the school bus and her head shoots towards the clock on the stove.

"Seriously? You have got to be kidding me!" Drying her hands on a dish towel and rushing to open the front door for her children, lambasting the whole way about how this day is just not going her way.

The children are bickering, as they do every day, about who made it to the door first, and she rolled her eyes wondering just why that was something to argue about in the first place.

Their argument is quickly forgotten as the dog barrels down the hall excited to see his babies home from school. Caroline just shakes her head all the while thinking that the dog is a little traitor as the children laugh and giggle about what a good puppy he is.

Getting the children's favorite snack ready, for this week anyways, she's ready to set the plates of cut up apples and peanut butter down when she stops, holding the plates above their heads with a stern look, "Did we wash our hands?"

With sullen faces the siblings turned and ran off to the downstairs bathroom to wash up after being at school all day and riding the bus. Caroline cringed at the thought of just how many germs where riding said bus along with her children. She had gotten sick one too many times from the things her children carried with them home.

Caroline rolled her eyes with a huff as she heard the standard bickering coming from the bathroom, "Don't fight over who goes first!"

The echo of their tiny voices reached her ears with a, "Sorry Mommy!"

Caroline spent the next hour of her day happily listening to her children tell stories of their day while they all munched on apples. This had to be about the best part of her day so far, she thought with a smile as she listened to their animated tales of lessons they learned, who did what at recess and the new art project Claudia was working on in class while Samuel raved about the short story he had written today.

"Mommy, when are you going to curl my hair? You promised you would this morning remember!" Claudia looked at her with her big puppy-dog blue eyes.

Caroline giggled as her daughter bounced in her seat, "Yes I remember. Let's go do that now so I can start dinner before your Dad gets home."

"Mom, can I play a video game while you do that?" Samuel asked hesitantly with just a hint of begging.

Caroline bit her lip in indecision, on normal days they did not allow them to play video games until after homework was done. But with her curling her daughter's hair, she couldn't very well help her son with his homework at the same time. "I guess so. But," She said louder over he son's excitement, "You have to promise me that you won't cause me any grief when I tell you to stop so you can do your homework."

Getting his promise to not cause any problems she took her daughter up to her bathroom to work on her hair. She tried really hard not to get upset when Claudia started fussing about how long it was taking and if she was done yet when she was only a third of the way finished, "Sweetie, you do this every time when you ask me to do your hair."

"I know Mommy. But I forget that it takes so long!" Claudia whined back as she swung her legs back and forth from her spot on the vanity chair.

Trying to figure out a way to keep her daughter occupied so she could finish up and not end up accidentally burning her with the curling iron with all her fidgeting, Caroline's eyes lit up as she found on idea, "Hey! Why don't we practice your song for the recital coming up in a few weeks?"

"But I can't dance when you're doing my hair." Claudia said almost as if she was appalled at her Mother's suggestion.

Caroline chuckled, "No, but you do have to remember all the words to the song you have to sing as you dance. Let's just try."

After successfully singing along with her daughter and getting her hair done to perfection, the two made their way downstairs to the living room where Samuel was busy playing his game. Out of the corner of her eyes she saw that unfolded load of laundry sitting in a pile mocking her and comes up with a plan of attack.

"Hey! I have an idea!" Caroline clapped her hands together, "You know what would make Daddy really happy?"

Both children look at her questionably.

"If you helped Mommy fold that laundry over there." At their skeptical faces she adds in, "Daddy would be so proud to hear that you helped Mommy while he was gone."

She smirked as that worked like a charm and Claudia was already sitting on the floor and Samuel was saving his game and shutting it down. She would not let herself feel bad for tricking her children into helping. They needed to start helping with choirs anyways, and besides, Klaus really would be happy to hear that they had helped her out around the house.

Caroline had a smile on her face as they excitedly helped her fold the clothes and towels. Though it took quite a bit of effort to keep it there and it did look more like a grimace since most of what they folded she would have to go behind them and refold again. They were so proud of their work that she didn't have the heart to tell them their folding capabilities were less than stellar. It was her own fault anyway, for tricking them into helping her when she knew quite well that they had issues folding clothes the right way. Once they were done, the children ran off into the kitchen to get their homework together while Caroline sneakily fixed the items they folded.

Noticing the time on the clock hanging on the wall Caroline rushed into the kitchen to help with homework and start on dinner leaving the clothing to be put away later.

As the children worked she opened the refrigerator to pull out the chicken she had bought at the store so she could get it in the oven in time for Klaus's arrival only to stop and freeze with her hand outstretched. Frantically she moved everything around and even checked the freezer just in case. She shut the doors with a little more force than necessary as she moaned. She never bought the stupid chicken. The stupid chicken was still sitting in the meat cooler at the meat department of the store. The meat department that she had planned to stop at after she got everything else since it was swarming with walkers and power wheelchairs.

"Great. Now what I am going to make for dinner?" She mumbled to herself.

"What'd you say Mommy?" Samuel asked as he finished his math paper.

"Nothing," Caroline sighed, "I just…"

The dog started barking and whining like crazy just as the front door opened. The children's faces lit up like it was Christmas.

"Daddy!" They both yelled as they took off towards the front of the house.

Caroline forgot about dinner and her long stressful day at the fact that Klaus was finally home; with a giant smile she followed the children. She was greeted with the sight of Klaus's bags sitting on the floor of the foyer forgotten as he was tackled to the ground by their children and the dog. She leaned against the wall watching with a smile as they all laughed on the floor together, both children talking at once trying to gain their Father's attention as the dog whimpered and whined.

"Alright my little wolves. Let me up so I can greet your Mother properly." Klaus stood as the children got up and the dog wandered off.

He took his time letting his gaze roam over her form that he missed sorely while he was away. His face held a dimple filled smile as he stopped in front of her cupping her cheek, "Hello My Love."

"Welcome home Klaus." She said softly right before his lips crashed to hers.

The kiss seared her straight down to her toes. God how she loved this man! She hated when he had to be away for so long, and her kiss told him just how much she had missed him. She felt like she was floating on cloud nine after a kiss like that. Not even their children's chuckles could bring her down, and from his smiling face when he pulled back, he felt the same. That is, until he uttered the three words no woman wants to hear after the day she had, "What's for dinner?"

Her smile fell off her face as she pulled back with a glare. She knew it wasn't his fault. That he had no idea just how her day had went but she couldn't help that her irritation had finally snapped, "What's for dinner? I'll tell you what's for dinner." She stated coldly, "The stupid chicken that is still at the damn store because I just happened to go during geriatric day! Ugh!" She spun away from him only to turn back around waving her hand at him, "Of course that's the first thing you ask when you get home. Do you have any idea the kind of day I've had?" Her voice was near a screech toward the end of her sentence.

"Well no Love I don't, but I was going to ask…" Klaus's mouth slammed shut as she continued right over the top of him.

"Well I'll tell you! First we have a late morning, and then I had to deal with the normal Elena drama. Then you Mother," She spat out the title as if it was a curse word, "called to remind me about the Sunday brunch. Like I can't remember a thing!" She threw her hands up in the air, smacking her thighs as the fell back down. "Let alone that while everyone else is allowed to bring a dish she feels my cooking isn't up to par enough for her standards. Then I had to rush to get out the door just to deal with the seniors shopping day, and I only went in the first place so I could make your favorite dinner for you when you got home. _Your dog_ got into the garbage again so that put me behind some yet again. By the time I got that cleaned up the kids were home. Then it was snacks and hair and homework. They thankfully helped me fold the clothes." She gave him a pointed look that he knew meant that she had to refold what they had worked on, "Then I head into the kitchen only to find I completely forgot to pick up the stupid chicken and now here you are asking me, what's for dinner?" She mimicked his British accent and he fought down the chuckle and the smile at her horrible take on it. "It is not funny." Her eyes narrowed at him.

"I know, I know." He replied waving his hand out trying to calm his laughter.

"Then stop laughing!" His mouth clamped shut but he knew the damage was done. Caroline closed her eyes for a moment before she looked back at him, "You know what, I don't know what's for dinner. How about that." She said as she stormed off to put the laundry away.

"Is Mommy okay?" Claudia asked as she pulled on her Father's sleeve.

Klaus smiled down at his children, "Yes Mommy will be fine little Love. I promise. It sounds like your Mother just had a trying day is all. Did the two of you complete your homework assignments?" At their nods he grinned and walked to his bag, "Well then I suppose you can go and play this," He pulled out the video game they had been asking about for months now, "But," He held it up before they could take it, "I want the two of you to play together without any arguments and to play quietly while I take care of your Mother."

"We will Daddy, we promise. Right Claudia?" Samuel asked and Claudia nodded her head so fast that her adorable curls bounced all around her.

"Alright then, off with you now." Klaus chuckled as they both latched onto his legs thanking him before they rushed off.

Klaus grimaced as he looked to the stairs where his wife had disappeared to. He knew it was likely that she was sulking after her outburst. She always was so hard on herself when she snapped like that, especially when she did so in front of their children. She was possibly being even harder on herself being that she hadn't seen him in almost a week. Klaus racked his brain to find a way to make her feel better, not only after her frustrated display in front of the children, but after what sounded like a very tiring day for her. He grinned as he found the answer and set about making it happen.

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Upstairs in their bedroom Caroline was hanging the last of the clothing up, grumbling to herself about how she ruined her husband's homecoming, when she felt Klaus's arms band around her waist as he placed a tender kiss on the curve of her shoulder.

"I'm sorry I went off like that downstairs." Caroline sighed as she placed her hands on his arms. "It's not your fault I had a horrible day."

"No, it's not." Klaus hummed as he nuzzled into her neck taking in her much missed scent. "Though I know you weren't blaming me My Love."

Caroline pulled herself out of his arms, "Argh! Why do you always have to be so understanding? I was so excited to have you home; it was the one thing I've been looking forward to all day. The one thing that helped me through all the crap and then I went and ruined it."

Klaus yanked her back into his arms with a cheeky grin, "I'm happy to hear that I can make your day better even if I am not present."

"Klaus." Caroline sighed as her shoulders slumped. "I am trying to apologize here."

"Just as I am trying to tell you that you have nothing to apologize for." Klaus replied as he cupped her cheek. "Now, how about we start this welcome home over, hmm?"

Caroline rolled her eyes, not able to fight off the grin, "Welcome home Klaus. I'm happy you're back."

Klaus licked his lips stepping further into her warm body, "Just as I am happy to be home Caroline." He said with a husky tone before pulling her face to his and sensuously moving his lips with hers. He loved that she moaned into the kiss as her lush body all but melted into his own as her fingers gripped tightly into his hair. He kept one hand burrowed in her golden locks as his other ran down her back slowly cupping her bottom and yanking her closer to show her just what she did to him.

He pulled his lips off of hers, smirking at her dazed and lust filled eyes before he began placing kisses along her neck causing her to tremble. His mind filled with images of how they would show each other just how much they missed one another tonight after the children were tucked away in their beds.

Running his lips up to her ear he flicked his tongue along its shell before his breath puffed in her ear bring about more of those delicious moans and shivers from her that he could never get enough of, "I have something tell you Caroline."

"What's that?" She said between her husky harsh breaths.

"Hmm." He hummed in her ear as he placed another well planned open mouthed kiss right below her ear. Then he uttered the three words every woman wants to hear, "I ordered pizza."

Caroline's eyes snapped open as she pulled back a little with her hands on his shoulders, "Wait what?"

His grinned as he twirled a lock of her hair around his fingers, "I figured after the day you had, the least I could do was take care of dinner. And since it's so close to dinner time, meaning I do not have the time to cook a meal that will have us eating before it's shower time for the children, I figured as much as you try and avoid it, I would just order pizza."

Caroline rolled her eyes with a grin, "I avoid it because I love it so much and that's not good for my figure."

Klaus yanked her into his still hard length, "You have nothing to worry about in that regards." Raising an eyebrow with a smirk, "But if you doubt me I will be more than happy to show you just how much I adore your figure later tonight."

She licked her lips, "You promise? Even if I eat half a pizza to myself?"

He smiled back at her pinching her bottom making her giggle, "Even if you eat an entire pizza to yourself."

With a smile she huffed out a laugh, "Thank you. You really know just what to say to a girl to make her day so much better."

"Well I have had years of practice Love." He replied smugly as he held her close.

She giggled back at him, "Yes but only after years of making blunders." They shared a laugh before she cupped his cheek, relishing in the tingles his stubble gave her. "I love you. I have no idea what I would do without you."

He smiled tenderly back at her, "As I love you. And you shall never have to find out." He said before pressing his lips to hers once more, only to stop as the doorbell rang signaling that their dinner had arrived. With a smile and another shake of her head she took hold of her husband's hand as they walked back down the stairs. The children were arguing in the living room, the dog was going ballistic over the doorbell but she didn't care. All her stress from the day melted away when her husband uttered those three words every woman wants to hear after a day like she had. _I ordered pizza._

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It ended with cheeses, but I hope it pleases!

We are heading into the last hours of voting for this year's Klaroline Awards! Head over to Tumblr and vote for your favorites!

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Chapter 26 of Above All Else is coming very soon!

PS…That meme on Facebook said, The three words every woman wants to hear…I ordered pizza! ;)


	4. Howling at the Moon

AU/AH Established Klaroline. NSFW…like at all. A strange little Fetish/Kink that popped in my head and would not leave me alone until I wrote this.

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Caroline grinned deviously at her reflection in the full length mirror of their bedroom. As she ran her hands down the fabric of her outfit she felt a nervous excitement course through her. She and Klaus had been together for nearly eight years now and she knew him well enough to know one of his secret kinks and had finally decided to give into it, whether he was aware that she knew or not. Not that she felt they needed the extra spice in the bedroom department by any means but fulfilling a secret fantasy of his turned her on more than she thought possible. They were pretty adventurous but this one for some reason hit her stronger than anything else she had done with him. Her thoughts drifted back, skimming over the start of their relationship all those years ago in High School.

Klaus had been the broody artist transfer student that had moved to Mystic Falls with his family during their senior year. He was brash and rude but after she had taken his younger sister under her wing, training her to become the next cheer captain after she herself graduated she had seen a different side to him. Well, he was still brash and rude but every now and then she would catch him looking at her, actually at her and not through her, then he would duck his head down with a blush once he realized he was caught.

They really didn't have much personal contact until he got into some trouble for fighting with Tyler Lockwood, the Captain of the football team. Caroline hadn't known at the time but it had turned out Tyler had made some very unsavory comments about her and Klaus took it in high offence. So much so he beat him to a bloody pulp. As punishment the school and his parents, decided he would benefit from being more involved in some sort of school activity. It had just so happened that the school's mascot, the Timberwolf, was open for a replacement. Caroline chuckled to herself as she remembered the colorful choice words Klaus had thrown around about being forced into such a position. Though he did seem to blush and calm down when he learned that under the code of conduct the only other student that would know the mascots real identity would be none other than the Cheer Captain, her. The same Cheer Captain that he would be spending a lot of time with.

Spending so much time together the two had grown closer. But it wasn't until they had a game that fell on Halloween that they had really drew together. Hayley, one of the other girls on the senior squad, had the brilliant idea that the girls should add a little flair to their normal uniforms. Wanting to keep things tasteful and follow along with school spirit, Caroline had instantly knocked down all the downright slutty ideas and came up with adding wolf ears and a tail. It wasn't until the bonfire later that night when a couple of football players got a little too handsy, not to mention annoying with their wolf whistles, that Klaus had showed up in his normal attire and forcefully removed her unwanted attention.

And now here they are, years later. After fights and near break ups. Apologies and amazing make up sex. Going to the same college. First apartments. First false pregnancy scares. Caroline glanced down to her left hand and what she wore proudly underneath her gloves. A proposal and now their dream home together.

Caroline glanced back into the mirror taking in her reflection, and all that lead to this. Her blonde hair was curled into tiny tight ringlets that made it look wild and full. A set of pointy gray and white wolf ears sat on the top of her head. A tight bra lined with a soft suede that was covered completely in fake wolf pelt. Her toned stomach was left bare, her waist was wrapped in a tiny skirt made of the same material as her top. On her long legs she wore a pair of moccasin style boots that matched her outfit and rose to a few inches about her knees. She had marveled at the extra padding that was placed on top of her knees, along with blushing as the sales clerk had tried to explain why it was there. Her wolf pelt gloves went up to just above her elbows; the palm of them had soft padded suede as well but had a touch of roughness to it, made to replicate that of a wolf's paw the sale's clerk had told her. The tips of her gloves were finished off with claw like points on each finger. Caroline smirked as she took in her entire ensemble, turning from side to side she could feel the long plush tail that was attached to her skirt swish against her bare thighs.

Klaus it seemed had carried a wolf fetish over the years. Their power thrilled him, their strength and agility enthralled him. She had watched nearly everything he had gotten his hands on about the creatures. And no matter what the movie or television show was, he always sided with the werewolves. Even when vampires were the thing, he had stuck to his guns, though he never admitted it to anyone but her, that werewolves were by far the more superior creature. As much as he grumbled about watching the Twilight series with her, she knew he was firmly on Team Jacob.

Caroline felt anticipation coil through her lower half, her breath picking up speed as she heard the garage door open. She had spent hours running over every way she should do this, every way she should act. She was nothing if not a perfectionist, even when it came to the more wild side of their sex life. Grabbing her phone she sent him a quick text, telling him to meet her in their room and then dropped down to the floor and got into position.

Klaus had just closed his car door when he felt the vibration of his phone in his pants pocket. Opening the text he felt heat burn down his spine as he read what she sent. His gaze lifted as he closed the garage door to the area of their home where their bedroom was located. He licked his lips wondering just what his delightful little fiancé had in store for them tonight.

Mounting the stairs he tried to temper his excitement, he loved when she did things like this. He couldn't help but wonder just what he would see when he walked through their door. He could see the light dancing under the doorway and smirked, it was summer and way too hot to use the fireplace in their master suite. This meant one of two things, she was in the mood for soft and romantic but that was normally followed after a candle lit dinner. So that left only one other option, she was in the mood for wild and untamed. That was definitely something he could get behind.

Klaus opened the door with a salacious smirk on his lips ready to greet her before his entire body stood frozen.

Well now that was a lie, his entire body outside of his instant raging erection stood froze.

Desire filled his body as he took in her form as she stood on all four on the floor in front of the fire. The firelight danced over her bare skin and he swallowed hard as he watched it dance over her fur. His mind raced as he tried and failed to figure out just how she knew. This was something that his young teenage mind had cooked up and had stuck, swimming in the back of it ever since.

A half embarrassed but completely aroused blush filled his cheeks as he stuttered out her name, "Caroline? What…"

He was cut off by a vicious sounding snarl resounding from her chest.

A shot of red hot lust shot through him like a bullet at the sound.

 _She fucking snarled._

Klaus glanced towards the open balcony doorway catching sight of the full moon sitting high in the sky.

Realizing who she was to him and just what she was more than willing to do for him, he let go of the embarrassment he had felt until it was nothing but an echo compared to the pure savage want he felt for her.

Licking his lips he began loosening his tie as he stepped closer to her, "Such a beautiful little wolf you are Love."

He watched in excitement as Caroline growled at him, inching her way backwards. "Wild little beast aren't you?" His voice dropped to a low husky level, "I'll take much pleasure in taming you my little beauty."

He leaned down, extending his hand to run his fingers through her glorious tight golden curls only to pull back as she snapped at him just missing the tips of his fingers with her teeth.

Standing to his full height he looked down at her with a hard stern gleam in his eyes even as his breath raced in exhilaration, "Now who is the Alpha here Love?" His eyes glimmered in amusement as she bristled under his tone. "I believe I am the Alpha male, Love." She continued to growl up at him causing him to fold his arms over his chest, speaking to her in an firm voice, "Now stop."

He watched on as Caroline begrudgingly snapped her mouth closed as she sat down on her rear with her legs folded out to her sides and her hands placed on the floor in front of her.

He smirked down at her, "That's a good girl." She sat staring up at him with her head tilting from side to side as he removed his tie and began unbuttoning his shirt leaving it to lay open before he knelt down in front of her. His hand lifted to run through her hair as he had wished to before, the start of her snarl was cut off by his reprimanding look. He grinned at her as she preened under his affectionate attention. "There you are my little beauty." His voice was soft and soothing before dripping with erotic promise, "You know, since I am the Alpha that would make you my Mate."

Her blue eyes glazed over with lust as her cheeks flushed much to his pleasure.

"Now, let me see just how stunning you look Love." His eyes trailed over her form, her breast heaved within their bindings and her stomach was clenched with need. His eyes trailed lower to her parted thighs finding nothing obstructing his viewing pleasure of her core. Her dripping wet core. He groaned upon his discovery and his eyes shot up to hers in question. Was she really that aroused by this? He had done nothing to her as of yet but run his fingers through her hair. What he found in her eyes caused his already rock hard member to jump within the confines of his pants.

She licked her lips and stood on all fours, the sultry sway of her hips held him captive until he glanced up to the full length mirror that showed him the view of her from behind. A deep groan left his lips at her soaking center flashing with every move she made.

Her face nuzzling into his groin, feeling her hot breath on his shaft through his pants rocketed his lust even higher though at the same time brought him to the task at hand.

Gentle he lifted her head, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand, "Now none of that my little wolf. Bestiality isn't really my thing here." He chuckled at her raised eyebrow. Pulling her up to place them face to face his voiced washed over her sending shivers through her body, "The moon is full my beautiful one. Once I remove my clothing," He tilted her head running his nose along her jaw and up to her ear, "I'll be able to shift just like you have. And then I can claim you like an Alpha should." He smirked as her breath hitched, "Then we can fuck like the animals we are."

She nearly moaned but caught herself, slyly turning it into a purr.

Klaus pulled back scorching her with his heated lust filled eyes, "Animals don't speak love, they don't make human sounds. Can you handle that?" His smirk teased her, pushing her buttons. She never was one that was able to keep her voice down, a fact that he prided himself on daily.

A determined look passed over her features, telling him the challenge was accepted.

Caroline stalked forward on all fours, leaning her head towards him she grasped the collar of his shirt giving it a forceful tug.

Heat flared inside of him at her way of telling him without words just how much she needed him, "Impatient are we?"

She sat back on her heels, rubbing her thighs together, her core so wet he could actually hear how much she needed him as she whined.

And that was the last straw for him.

Klaus stood ripping off his clothing as she watched on avidly with yearning eyes that seared him to the depths of his soul.

Once the last article of his clothing hit the floor he snarled at her, dropping to the floor as her chest heaved in anticipation.

He pressed the side of his face against hers, breathing down her neck, taking in her wild aroused scent. He felt her teeth nip the side of his neck and it sent a thrill of want so hard through him that he pulled back with a growl.

Reaching towards her he quickly pulled the cups of her bra down, releasing her breasts to his hunger filled gaze.

Taking hold of her hips he flipped her around onto her knees, her hands slamming onto the floor as she faced the mirror.

Klaus looked down at the luscious curves of her backside, seeing the evidence of her arousal coating her inner thighs. A groan nearly spilled from his lips and he caught sight of her cocked mocking eyebrow as he turned it into a snarl and pushed his hips forward to rub his hardened shaft against her sopping wet core. Watching her in deep satisfaction as her mouth dropped open and her eyes rolled back behind fluttering eyelids.

With a quick snap of his hips he buried himself into her waiting heat, nearly doubling over her at the intense pleasure of having her core clench around him so tightly.

Near inhuman growls and snarls reverberated throughout their bedroom as he dug his nails into her hips, thrusting in and out of her at a pleasurable near punishing pace.

Sweat pored off their bodies as the intense pleasure raced through them both. Her eyes met his in the reflection of the mirror, telling him just how much she loved what he was doing to her, her jaw was clenched tightly trying to contain the screams of enjoyment that he knew wanted to escape from her mouth.

His gaze shifted lower in the mirror following every harsh bounce of her breast as he pounded into her from behind.

His breath left in harsh pants from behind his bared teeth as he felt her inner wall flutter and squeeze his shaft.

Lifting himself slightly on his toes he dropped his hands next to her upper body on the floor. Staring in her lust clouded eyes through the mirror he lowered his head to her neck as he continued to snap and roll his hips, pushing himself deeper and faster into her silky depths. He opened his mouth, sweat dripping from his face, and latched his teeth onto the cords of her neck.

A long loud cross between a snarl and a moan left her lips as her core clamped down on him like a vice grip as her orgasm crashed through her, bringing a bellowing roar from him as it triggered his own incredible release.

Completely depleted of strength they both collapsed to the floor. Klaus shifted next to her pulling her onto his chest with numb arms. They laid there hearing nothing but the pounding hearts and rapid breaths. The nails of her gloves lightly scratching across his chest bringing a content hum from his throat as his fingers trail over her spine.

Once she had her breathing under control Caroline turned her head to glance up at him, "Well that was intense."

Klaus curled an arm under his head to look down at her with a chuckle, "I'd say so, Love."

She bit her lip holding back a smile, to which he gazed at her with a soft grin and eyes full of love.

"How did you know Caroline?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "I didn't for sure, but I kind of figured it out over the years. At first I thought it was just some crazy thought I had," She rolled her eyes, "you know how I love to over think things."

He cocked an eyebrow at her, replying cheekily, "You don't say?"

She slapped his chest with her glove covered hand giggling, "Shut up." His deep laughter joining along with hers.

Caroline's laughter died down, licking her lips she propped herself up on her elbow leaning over his chest flicking her eyes from his back down again, "So, was it everything you fantasized it would be?"

Klaus rolled them over, smiling down into her face, "And more My Love. So much more."

Caroline lifted her hand, swirling her claw tipped finger around his nipple, "So when did this little fantasy start?"

Klaus huffed, looking down bashfully with heated cheeks before glancing back up to her, "Remember back in High School and the game on Halloween night?"

The memory clicked and she grinned cheekily back up at him, "So while I was prancing around on the field during half time you were picturing something like this?"

Klaus groaned dropping his head to her chest, "No." After a moment he popped his head back up to grin devilishly at her, "Well not this scenario per say, but I was thinking of you naked."

"Perv." She giggled with a roll of her eyes, bringing a smile to his face at what she use to call him when she caught him staring at her all those years ago. "So then when did this start?"

"That night when I was back home alone in my bed." He felt the fire start back up again in his loins as a spark of lust flickered in her eyes. He dropped his voice, speaking seductively to her as his hand reached up to cup her breast. "There I was after a night spent in your company; you prancing around in that cheerleader wolf get up. I took myself in my hand and began to stroke, thoughts of you dancing through my mind as usual and then my normal fantasies shifted. The tail stayed on your flipped up skirt as I rode you from behind. Details were added over the years. Not that this was something that ruled my more erotic thoughts of you, but every now and then it would come back." His shaft began to twitch to life once more, her nipple hardened between his fingers as she shifted her hips up against him.

Leaning down he pressed his lips against hers for the first time that evening, their tongues dueling as they grasped each other tightly.

Klaus released her lips, pulling back only an inch, "As enthralling as that was Love, what do you say we try a few other ideas I have in mind with this lovely get up you have on?"

Caroline's grin turned devilish as she wrapped her legs around his hips, "Only if I get to be the Alpha this time."

Klaus groaned as her hot wet core slid over her throbbing shaft, "I'm sure that could be arranged." He quickly flipped them over pinning her hands above her head shoving his shaft into her, "Next time."

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Let me know what you think. Now I'm off to have a drink. ;)


	5. Two Can Play That Game

NSFW…AGAIN. LOL I just can't seem to help myself!

I am working on getting the next chapter done for _Above All Else_ as well as putting together all of the one-shots for Klaroline AU Week coming up in October.

A big huge giant thank you and hug to all of you who have reviewed, followed and add me as a favorite for this story. THANK YOU! Your support and feedback means the world to me!

Guest reviewer…I am so glad you liked the twist on the wolf thing in the last chapter! HAHAHA!

Now, find a quiet place where you can be alone and enjoy this over 5,000 words of deliciousness!

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The Grill was an hour away from opening for the lunch rush. The three friends sat around a booth sipping sodas, enjoying the privacy the unopened restaurant provided. Sometimes it was good knowing Matt, seeing as he often let the girls take over the dining area for their own personal private meeting.

No supernatural drama. No half-baked schemes. Just three best friends chatting about all kinds of what others would deem, girly nonsense.

It would always start off small, clothes, hair who was trying to usurp the cheer team this week. Then it would, as always, morph into talks about boys and sex.

Bonnie's gaze shifted towards the table as she grumbled, "At least you two actually _have_ someone. Me? I'm all alone with all these…" She waved her hand around hoping they would catch on, too uncomfortable to actually say the words out loud.

"Urges?" Caroline spoke with a giggle and a smirk. Her smirk fell off her face once she noticed her friend's embarrassment. Leaning forward across the table she placed her hand on top of Bonnie's, "Hey Bon. There's nothing to be embarrassed about." Removing her hand she waved it around the room, "It's just us girls here."

"Yeah, Caroline's right Bonnie." Elena shifted in her seat to face her. "Sorry we got carried away with all the sex talk there." Her phone buzzed in her purse pulling her attention away from the other girls. A blush stained her cheeks, her breath picking up in a way that only Caroline could hear. Elena quickly shoved her phone back into her bag with a halfhearted apology and excuse; she was out the door causing Caroline to roll her eyes with a scoff.

Bonnie frowned, "Great. She's off to have sex with Damon," She shuddered in disgust, "Next thing I know Tyler will be calling you and you will leave me alone too." She irritatingly snatched up her glass pulling her soda up through the straw.

Caroline tapped her fingers on the top of the table eyeing Bonnie across from her speculatively.

Bonnie caught her friends gaze and shifted in her seat, "What Care? Are you going to berate me about being jealous of Elena and _Damon_ of all people?"

"No that's not it." Caroline spoke hesitantly before giving a small nod of her head reaching the decision to tell Bonnie what she had been thinking of, hoping to come off delicately, "Bonnie…" She inhaled, "You need to invest in a good vibrator." Caroline grimaced, judging by the soda she was currently wearing that had spewed out of Bonnie's mouth, she didn't handle this as carefully as she had planned.

After recovering from her initial shock, Bonnie began to sputter, "What? I mean…You think I should…Huh? My God Caroline! You can't be serious!"

"Oh but I am." Caroline folded her arms on the table and leaned closer to Bonnie, even if the only other people in the Grill at the moment were the wait staff she knew Bonnie would want to crawl under a rock and die if this conversation was overheard. "Look Bonnie, there is nothing wrong with having needs, and _definitely_ nothing wrong with a woman taking care of said needs on her own. Self-love can be the best form of pleasure at times. Every woman should know the ins and outs of it. I mean seriously," She began waving her hands around animatedly, "If we don't know just what we like then how can we expect other's to you know, get it right?"

She spoke so matter of fact like that Bonnie mimicked her by folding her arms across the table in front of her and leaned in. Her face scrunched up in indecision, "I don't know Care. How would I even go about that? Could you imagine me ordering one online and having to explain that to my Father when it showed up at the door?"

Caroline smiled gently and spoke as if it would be a drastic occurrence, "That would be horrendous." They both shared a giggle before Caroline sobered up, "But seriously, there is a store just outside of town that supplies anything and everything you could possibly need. Plus, it is an extremely tasteful place with an amazing staff."

"And just how is it that you know this?"

Caroline rolled her eyes, "Um hello! Vampire hormones are no joke Bonnie. And sometimes it was so bad that even I couldn't stand it and taking care of it with only these," She lifted her hands wiggling her fingers, causing Bonnie to choke on her embarrassed laughter, "Didn't always help." She shrugged her shoulders, "So I did a little research, found the shop and paid good money for a really nice one. Best hundred dollars I've ever spent." She sighed with a smile.

Bonnie leaned back against the booth deep in thought before shaking her head, "I don't think I could go through with it. Going into a place like that alone? I don't think I have the guts."

Caroline cocked an eyebrow, "Really Bon? You think I would let you do this alone?" She scoffed, "Please. This is a major rite of passage for a woman and I plan to be there for your de-virginization in this."

Bonnie couldn't help the laughter that poured out of her, leave it to Caroline to make this some life changing event. "You're serious aren't you?"

"Well duh! Picking out the right, shall we say, _tool_ for the job is important. And I happen to know the best ones to pick from." Standing from the booth Caroline opened her purse to drop the money down for their drinks before slinging the strap over her shoulder, "Well come on let's go."

Bonnie's eyes widened comically as she looked at Caroline then glanced around making sure no one had overheard their conversation, "Now? You want to do this now?"

"Of course. We need to get those urges of yours under control. Trust me. You will _so_ be thanking me later." Caroline nodded with a giggle as Bonnie followed her numbly out to her car.

An hour later the girls were standing in the adult shop with the choices narrowed down to three, two of which were the vibrators themselves, while the third was Bonnie skipping this all together, running from the store and going home to drink so much alcohol that she forgot this ever even happened.

Caroline gave the sales woman a megawatt smile, "Just give us a few minutes Stacy. I think I need to give my friend here another pep talk."

The sales woman gave her a wink, understanding how first timers could be so self-conscious and nervous. But if anyone could help with the sale it would be Caroline, that girl was one of her best customers and even helped other's make up their minds on certain products.

After the sales woman walked away Caroline took hold of Bonnie's shoulders, "Calm down Bonnie. This is no big deal. No one will ever have to know outside of me that you even have this to begin with. It is strictly for you. There is absolutely no shame in this at all." Bonnie's wide panicked eyes finally started to calm down as she breathed along with Caroline, "Good. Now, which do you think you will like better?"

Bonnie steeled her nerves and pointed to the one Caroline had said she owned and absolutely loved. It had different settings, dual vibrators for inner and outer pleasure, it was quiet, recharged by a universal USB plug and the best feature, it was water proof.

Caroline smiled widely with a soft clap of her hands, "Great! You will so love this one!" She saw the introspective look on Bonnie's face, "What is it? Come on, you can ask me anything, you know that."

Bonnie inhaled deeply before rushing, "So how do you like, stay in the mood? Do you watch porn of whatever?"

Caroline chuckled before replying sagely, "The power of your mind is the best tool." At Bonnie's wrinkled forehead she rolled her eyes with a giggle, "Fantasies Bonnie."

Bonnie's mouth rounded out to form a perfect O before she looked at her friend asking her hesitantly, "So what is your number one fantasy?"

Caroline licked her lips as she thought it over. She had a ton of them that helped her in the moment but there was one that had always stuck, an idea that always found its way back to the forefront of her mind. Clearing her throat she spoke with a dreamy like quality, "Being caught. Like there I am, taking care of myself and someone walks in. I know they are there, but I continue as if I don't. It becomes obvious that I know but we keep up the pretense that neither of us knows we know. Then he starts to touch himself as well, so overcome by the thought of what I am doing to myself." She felt the blood rush to her cheeks, not in embarrassment, but in arousal.

Bonnie felt a flush take over her body. She knew she was nowhere near comfortable with something like that. But then again, Caroline always had more of an adventurous streak than anyone else she had known. A smirk grew on Bonnie's face as an idea came to her, folding her arms across her chest she looked at Caroline, "Ok Care. I'll tell you what. I will buy this for myself if _you_ promise me you will turn this fantasy of yours into a reality."

Caroline bit her lip deep in though. She couldn't help but love the flashes that ran through her mind, the heat that coiled within her core. Releasing her lower lip she licked it to sooth the ache that had come from how hard she had bitten down, "Done."

Bonnie's eyes widened, "Really? It's that easy?"

"Yup." Caroline stated with a smile. "Now," She wiggled her eyebrows, "Let's get you your first sex toy!"

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A few hours later had Caroline standing alone in her bedroom giving herself a pep talk. After another hour of pacing and stopping to write out a text only to toss her phone on her bed over and over again, she finally inhaled and with a firm look on her face she marched back over to her phone. Scooping it up, she typed out the text once more, reading it over once just to be sure it was worded the right way. With a firm finger she hit the send icon. Once she heard the standard sound that followed a sent text she felt the blood rush from her body leaving her cold but hot at the same time.

Staring at her phone she noticed the dotted bubble pop up showing that the person on the other end of the text was typing back. Once she received an affirmative reply her heart began to pound.

She knew that since he had no idea what she was planning she could easily get out of it and just go along with the made-up plans she had sent to him. Part of her was tempted to do just that, until the visions of what she had told Bonnie about her fantasy began dancing through her head.

A deep rooted heat began to flare within her center. Her nipples pebbled, scratching against her bra causing sparks of pent up desire to course through her.

She was so doing this.

She flashed through her room and her connecting bathroom, setting up everything so it would be ready to go once he arrived. She quickly flashed down the stairs leaving the door unlocked so that when she didn't answer he would just let himself in.

She striped out of her clothes, placing them strategically across her floor, almost as if she was laying out a trail for him to follow.

With a satisfied and excited smirk she pulled open the bottom drawer of her nightstand grabbing her trusty vibrator and then skipped into the shower.

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Stopping in front of her house after flashing over, Klaus glanced down to his phone to check the time. He was only five minutes early, but knowing Caroline she would appreciate his attention to detail and arriving just before the appointed time.

Glancing towards the house he licked his lips before re-reading the text he had unexpectedly received from her just over an hour ago.

 _So I was thinking about that so-called date I owe you. I don't think the Miss Mystic Pageant counts, seeing as we didn't really have a date date. I am not one to have anything held over my head so here is my offer. Come to my place at eight o'clock. Leave your car at home, flashing would be faster anyways. We can see a movie. Maybe if you are good I will even lessen the three seats between us._

To say he was nervous would be a drastic understatement. He wondered just what ploy she was up to now. Could this really be her reaching out to him and giving him a chance? Or was this just another way to undermine him and use his affections towards her for her little band of friend's benefit? He had seriously contemplated even showing, but the draw he felt towards her pulled him in just as it always did.

Placing his phone back in his pocket, Klaus smashed down his nerves and started towards the house. The heels of his boots scraped against the concrete of her walkway, he knew it was giving away his presence but that was his intention. He wanted her to know he was here, give her those last few moments to ready herself.

He inhaled a shaking breath to center himself before lifting his hand to knock on her door. His eyebrows furrowed when she did not answer. Looking around he found her car in the driveway. He knew she was here and that she was expecting him so he wondered what she could be doing that had her not answering his knock.

Testing the doorknob he found it unlocked and carefully made his way into her house. Glancing around he noticed no one else was here but could make out distant sounds coming from where he knew to be her bedroom. He called out her name only to receive no response.

Curious about what she could be doing, nervous that something was wrong and that was why she had not came to the door, he slowly made his way towards her room. The possibility that she was still getting ready crossed his mind, and as much as he would love nothing more than to have a view of her partially naked form emblazoned in his mind forever, he knew that would ruin whatever change he had with her.

When he made it to her room he found her bedroom door left wide open. He could hear the sounds of the shower running through the closed bathroom door.

Klaus had to bite down on the inner cheeks of his mouth to hold back the groan that wanted to escape at the thoughts of her naked body under the warm shower spray. His eyes scanned the room out of habit and he felt his shaft harden as he took in the path her clothing had left towards the bathroom door.

Attempting to rein in his over active libido, he locked his body down and turned stiffly to leave the room only to stop with widened eyes as a sound he had always longed to hear from her drifted over the showers spray and through the door.

Images of Caroline touching her sweet supple body while standing under the showers spray drifted through his mind at the sound of her moan, drawing him helplessly towards the door that shielded her from his view.

He stopped in front of the door, not even coherent on how he had ended up there, his ears honed in on what was happening in the next room. Hearing nothing but the water hitting her body and the walls, he shook himself out of his lust filled stupor.

He had to get out of here before she caught him or overheard his harsh breath. Staring at the closed door inches in front of him longingly he released a yearning sigh only to widen his eyes as it echoed across her bedroom. There was no way she did not hear that.

Ready to flash away before he was caught his body locked him in place as an seemingly answering sigh echoed back at him before another drawn out moan reached his ears.

There was no way those sounds she was making was only from the relief a hot shower could bring her. Caroline was in there…he gulped down harshly as his cock jumped within his jeans…touching herself. Pleasuring herself in such a way he would have died a thousand deaths to see, to be a part of.

His gaze flickered towards the clock on her desk noticing that the time read a quarter after eight. His heated gaze swung back to the door in front of him.

Caroline was a complete perfectionist much like himself. She prided herself on being on time, if not early, to each and every event. That only meant one thing. His breath sawed in and out of him in hot puffs as her soft sighs and quiet moans floated through his ear, latching and forever searing into his brain.

She knew he was here.

She _wanted_ him to find her this way.

With his cock so hard he thought it would rip through his pants, he lifted a shaking hand to test the doorknob only to frown when he found it locked. His eyes flew up to the door once more as he heard her breath hitch.

He licked his lips as a devious smirk grew over his face.

So _this_ is what she wanted, what she craved for.

Well then, if you can't beat them, he chuckled in his mind, join them.

Pressing one hand against the doorframe he lowered his other to trail down his chest, reaching the buckle of his belt knowing that she heard the clink of metal by the way her breath began to race.

His fingers trembled as he slowly unzipped his zipper, the sound bring forth the loveliest yearning groan from Caroline within the shower.

Klaus widened his stance, letting his jeans and boxers fall to the tops of his thigh, his erection springing out hot and heavy into his waiting hand. Bracing himself firmly against the doorframe he began to stroke himself softly, the image of it being her hand pulling a deep groan from him.

Caroline's eyes rolled back as her lids fluttered closed. Knowing he was just on the other side of the door, his hand wrapped around his cock, pumping himself with pleasure had her hands trembling with raging desire as she pinched her clit and flicked her nipples.

Her breathing quickened as she let the water pour over her, heat coiling in her core at just how much hotter this fantasy was in reality.

She needed more. Her fingers sliding over her clit, pinching and tugging on her nipples was no longer enough.

Removing her hand from her core she reached over grabbing her vibrator running it over the outside of her slick soaking core before clicking the button to turn it on, letting out a long groan of satisfaction as it buzzed lightly against her throbbing clit.

Upon hearing the sounds of the vibrations and her deeply pleased groan Klaus gripped his pulsating cock tightly, his other hand lifted from the wall only to smack back down with a loud whack as he moaned.

He closed his eyes creating the image that he was sure to find if he was in there with her. Her leg propped up, her toy pressed against her clit as she rubbed it gently back and forth.

His mouth fell open with a breathy groan, his limbs were shaking so much that his one arm was not enough to hold him upright any longer.

Spinning around quickly he pressed his back against the wall next to the door. Releasing his straining cock from his hand, he lifted it to his mouth gathering his saliva and licking it across his palm for better lubrication before wrapping it back around himself with a moan hissing through his teeth.

His other hand drifted down his body cupping his sac, alternating between rolling it and tugging it gently.

His eyelids fluttered closed and his head hit the wall behind him, pre-cum dripping out of his tip as he heard Caroline's erratic breathy sighs and moans as she came with her toy pressed against her clit.

A smirk grew over his flushed face as he heard her continue to pleasure herself in the shower, once was not enough for her. His arousal sky rocketed as he realized she was of a similar state of mind as him on this subject.

Self-love isn't always about a quick release and slaking of lust. Sometimes it was meant to be savored. He was thrilled beyond belief that she viewed this as one of those moments. That she deemed _him_ worthy to enjoy and experience this moment with.

Muffled vibrations told him she had placed the toy inside of her mouthwatering core. His hands tightened around his cock, pumping to match the rhythm he could tell she was using by the sounds of the vibrator in her delicate hands.

In his mind's eye his shaft was the toy grinding and gliding inside of her silky walls. His hands no longer his own but her inner wet walls fluttering as they encased him within her luscious heat.

Caroline's keening moans and cries grew louder and more erratic. Klaus's deep groaning sounds matching hers in their intensity.

His body began to tremble and shake with the need to come, but he held himself back wanting nothing more than to come along with her this time.

"Come for me Love. I need you to come Caroline."

His whispered heated plea was met with a harsh high pitched cry as she came explosively with his name on her lips.

Klaus instantly pulled the bottom of his shirt up high on his chest; a roar of her name flew out of his trembling lips, his back pressed tightly against the wall as his intense orgasm spilled over his abdomen in hot spurts.

Caroline leaned her back against the shower wall, gathering her strength back after that delightful display of pure sexuality. She had thought she would be embarrassed once it was done, but she was surprised to find that that was not the case. She felt a comfortable warmth flow through her as she cleaned up, a nervous excitement in her lower belly at the thought of seeing him face to face after this. Wrapping her body in a towel she inhaled deeply, centering herself, before she unlocked the bathroom door.

Klaus stood leaning against the wall, his pants still sitting at the tops of his thighs, his shirt tucked under his chin as his release sat still hot on his chest and abdomen. He wondered numbly is he should stay or leave, his body too depleted to move an inch as of yet. What would she want of him now?

She answered his unspoken question when the door opened, surprising him in his blissed state.

His eyes widened fractionally at the sight of her wet hair hanging around her beautiful face, her glorious body wrapped in a fluffy white towel. He grinned lazily as he watched her eyes scan over his half naked form. He reach down to pull his pants back up only to grimace as his shirt fell and stuck to the evidence of his resent pleasure.

Caroline placed a hand over her mouth with a soft giggle, "Yeah I figured that might be an issue." She pointed her hand towards the bathroom behind her, "You can get cleaned up in there, I left some stuff out for you. Meet me downstairs when you're done."

His mouth floundered open and shut as he tried to think of what to say. Her smiling crystal eyes spoke of her amusement with his inability to form coherent words. With a nod of his head and an affectionate smile he walked into the bathroom closing the door behind him.

Glancing around the room he chuckled as he found the items she had left for him. A set of men's lounge pants and a new Henley sat on top of the counter. He felt a warmth in his chest at the realization that she truly had planned this little interlude. This wasn't just something thought up on a whim, he could only hope that she was ready to take a really chance on him and that this wasn't, as pleasurable as it was, just an itch to scratch. His eyes flashed a heated yellow at the sight of her vibrator sitting out on a small towel to air dry. Steeling himself away from such thought, lest he flash out of the room and take her in reality this time, he set about cleaning himself up and changing his clothing. Ready to make his way down the stairs, a nervous anticipation growing within him at where she would allow them to go next.

He padded down the stairs in bare feet, clothed in the outfit she had bought for him and found her in the kitchen emptying a bag of popcorn into a large bowl, two glasses of blood sitting next to it.

He licked his lips as he looked her over, her hair caught up on the top of her head, her blue tank top, suspiciously the same color as his new shirt, gave him an incising view of her generous cleavage. The loose flannel lounge pants looked soft and comfortable against her legs.

Slowly he walked his way to her, intending to test the waters and wrap his arms around her only to be stopped by her hand placed against his chest. He glanced down to her hand then back up to her with a slightly dejected frown.

Caroline smiled softly up at him, her fingers caressing his hard chest through his shirt, "Look, I know we just did what we did. But if you are really serious about wanting a chance with me…"

His voice interjected as quick and sure as a whip, "I am Caroline."

She smiled, "Okay. Then you need to know that even though that was beyond hotter than I had fantasized it would be, I want us to move slow." She glanced up at him hesitantly, "Is that okay with you?"

Klaus felt his heart beat erratically in his chest, even more so than when they had played upstairs. His hand lifted up to cover hers over his chest pressing down firmly so she would have no doubts as to why his heart was beating the way it was, "I am more than willing Love." He took a small step towards her, "We can move at whatever pace you deem fit." His breath fanned against her face as a smirk curved his luscious lips, "Though if I may suggest, we can start the next time by working our way up to _watching_ each other do what transpired tonight." His smirk widened as he watched in awe the blush that rushed across her cheeks. His voice dropped down to a husky whisper, "What a magnificent fantasy to experience it was Caroline."

Caroline began to smirk before forcing it away, but not before Klaus caught sight of it. Caroline shook her head at the heated look he gave her and attempted to pull away only to have his hand on her upper arm stop her. Looking back at him she raised a questioning eyebrow.

Klaus smiled gently at her, almost bashfully, as he asked, "Would it be in the realm of possibilities if I could ask for one small thing Love?"

"And what's that?"

"Kiss me Caroline." His voice filled with pleading passion, "Nothing more I promise. I just…" His eyes flickered around the room and back to hers once more as he sighed, "I need to know what those glorious lips of yours feel like against my own."

Caroline gazed at him in shock, of all the things he could ask for _this_ is what he wanted. Her heart felt light as she took the last remaining step between them, her chest rubbing softly against his. She cracked a small smile as his eyes widened fractionally as if he couldn't believe she was about to grant him this kiss. Well she would just have to fix that.

Their lips met tenderly, both sighing into the kiss. It was slow and soft. Not a rushed bout of pleasure but a gentle meeting and melting of two people willing to do what it takes to give the other a chance. Their hands cupped and whispered softly against the other's face making them both feel so connected through this tender kiss.

Klaus pulled away with a lazy happy smile, his dimples showing in his cheeks. Caroline licked her lips, tasting his on her tongue and gave a similar smile back to him before stepping back to pick up the popcorn.

"Will you grab the glasses?"

"Of course Love. Let's go start this film you picked out."

Caroline giggled as they set their things down on the sofa table, "Movies. We call them movies in this day and age you old man." Caroline squealed as he grabbed her around the waist, pulling her down to the sofa tickling her sides. "Okay! Okay! Stop!"

Her enthralling laughter made his own die off as he took in her smiling shining face. Brushing her hair off her face he spoke quietly with a smirk and a deep erotic promise within his sparkling eyes, "I long for the day that I can prove to you just how much this _old man_ can do." He heard her breath hitch in her throat as he leaned down placing a tender kiss to her flushed cheek. "But for now, let's watch this _movie._ " He whispered.

As the two settled in on the sofa to watch the movie, with only a few scant inches between them, across town Bonnie was leaving the Grill with her late dinner in her hands only to bump into Tyler's chest after closing the door.

"Hey Ty. I figured you'd be with Caroline tonight." She said with a frown, feeling a little disappointed that her friend had chickened out.

Tyler looked at her strangely, "Didn't Care tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"The break-up wasn't fake. We really did decide to cut ties just before the Pageant."

Bonnie shifted uncomfortably, "Oh, sorry. I didn't know."

Tyler shrugged his shoulders, "It's alright. We both decided it would be best. We've been growing apart for a while now so we figured it would be better to split as friends before things got any worse. But hey listen; I have to go grab dinner for me and Hayley. I'll see you around Bonnie."

"Yeah, see ya." Bonnie waved her hand in a daze as he walked into the Grill.

She wandered over to her car as she tried and failed to piece together if not Tyler then just who it was that Caroline was with tonight. A smile grew on her face, she couldn't wait to tease it out of her tomorrow, figuring if all went according to Caroline's plans, her night wouldn't be ending with just the fantasy she had in mind.

Little did she know that back across town anything sexual was finished for the night as the couple took advantage of the empty house, with Caroline's Mother out of town, by curling up together watching a movie and just enjoying the presence of the other.

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Ta-da! Hope you all enjoyed that. I know I did.


	6. Accidental Voyeurism

I know I promised an update to other one-shots in here as well as the next chapter for Above All Else, but I am having a hard time putting together how I want things to go. I know what I want to have happen but moving it from my brain to the keyboard is causing me problems. This was a little exercise for me to work those issues away. Hmm…wait…that sounds wrong considering that this will contain a small amount of smut. Oh well. Whatever. LOL

Thank you all for all the reviews on my previous one-shots! I really am trying to get the second parts done for the ones that you all have asked for! I am just so swamped with life and the seven one-shots for AU Week coming up soon. THANK YOU THOUGH! You asking for more makes me all warm on my insides! ;)

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Accidental voyeurism.

AH. Caroline and Tyler recently broke up. Established Klaroline friendship. Things have been complicated after they had a one night stand.

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Klaus sighed as he watched the numbers change in the elevator on his way to Caroline's office. He tried not to fidget with all the anxious energy he had bottled up inside. It had been over a week now since he had last spoke to or seen her. As much as he knew Caroline hated to be cornered, she was leaving him very little choice.

They were friends for years now, much to Tyler and Klaus's displeasure. Klaus had wanted her since they met in an art history class while they attended college. The two had become fast friends, with him making plans to upgrade their status. But before he could work up the nerve to ask her out, after months of trying to show her he wasn't the womanizing asshat she deemed him to be, he found he had missed his chance. That was when _Tyler_ came into the picture.

That was almost four years ago now.

Back then he had thought _Tyler_ would be nothing but a phase so he had continued his plan of proving to Caroline just how good of a man he could be.

Then they moved in together.

He turned back to drinking his sorrows away and sleeping with a random woman nearly every night.

Things had been a little rocky in their friendship ever since. Him secretly in love with her, Tyler jealous of their friendship left Caroline stuck in the middle.

That was why last week came as a shock to him. Caroline had shown up at the bar where he was, made the woman he was…entertaining for the evening leave, and before he could berate her for it she had flown into a verbal onslaught of what had been happening to her over the past two week.

Between her crying, ranting and drinking he caught onto the words, broken up and moved out. Apparently Tyler had offered her an ultimatum, him or the friend she was so obviously in love with and who was so obviously in love with her. She had made it clear that those were Tyler's words not hers. And apparently Tyler had forgotten the fact that Caroline did not like to be cornered.

Klaus had received the shock of his life that night; Caroline had chosen _Him_ over Tyler. After a few questioning comments of how ridiculous that was from Caroline, a couple bashful smiles from Klaus and way too many drinks later, they were then naked and writhing together in his apartment.

He had woke up the next morning only to find her gone and his calls to her going unanswered.

And now that brought him here. Watching the doors of the elevator open to show the hall that led passed her receptionist's desk and then around the corner to her office.

Stealing his nerves Klaus left the elevator. As he closed in on the receptionist he placed his finger to his lips. He lowered his finger with a smirk feeling relief when she conspired with him and did not buzz Caroline to warn her of his impending arrival.

With a quick brisk knock he cracked the door open to see Caroline standing with her back to the door as she shuffled through paperwork on her desk.

"Rachel, I told you I didn't want to be disturbed."

Klaus stepped into the room, closing the door behind him, "Well then, it's a good thing I am not Rachel then isn't it Love?"

Caroline gasped, dropping the papers with shaking hands before spinning around. She hoped her face didn't show her anxiety at seeing him or the guilt she felt at avoiding him this past week after the event that shall not be named. "Klaus? What…" She cleared her throat as her voice came out all high and squeaky, squaring her shoulders she tried again, "What are you doing here?"

Klaus lifted an eyebrow at her as if to tell her, you are kidding me right?

Caroline scoffed, "Look I don't have time for this right now. I have a deadline to meet with the Walsh account. Their housewarming party is in less than a month and the new Mrs. Walsh changed her color schemes for two of the six remodeled guest bedrooms. So, as nice as it is to see you, you know your way out." She nodded her head firmly before turning back to her paperwork.

Klaus licked his lips in indecision. As his eyes scanned over her lovely backside he realized he had nothing left to lose. She had already begun to pull away from him, so if this whole endeavor was to go south, he might as well go down in a blaze of glory.

Strutting his way to her he watched her shoulders go ridged as he whispered in her ear from behind, "Nice to see you as well Caroline, though I believe it is _you_ who knows the ways out so much better than I."

Caroline spun around to face him folding her arms across her chest with an indignant huff, "What are you going on about now Klaus?"

"I think you know quite well what I am going on about Caroline." He smirked as a blush began staining her cheeks.

"I don't know what you mean." She tried to deflect him, wishing he would just leave. She _so_ did not want to get into this.

Klaus studied her face, seeing she was about to pull away from him and shut this whole thing down. He reached forward grabbing her hand and cupping it within his own. Staring down at her hand encased in his, he whispered, "I woke up to find you gone. I've called, send text messages, emails and received no response from you. For a single second I tried to stop thinking about you," His impassioned eyes looked up to lock with hers, "But I can't."

Seeing where with was going, and feeling terrified of it, Caroline tried to pull away, "Klaus, don't."

Klaus held her hand tightly not allowing her to move away, "Don't what Caroline? Tell you how much I want you? How much I know you want me as well? We would be so great together Sweetheart. Think of it, we have been friends for so long that we know each other's habits so well already. Meaning that we can skip that awkward stage everyone dreads in a new relationship. Why won't you just give us a chance?"

His soothing voice had her falling into the picture his words painted before the reasons behind why she didn't want to do this reared their ugly heads, "Yeah, we know each other so well. If this doesn't work out Klaus we won't even have our friendship left. I can't do that! I can't _not_ have you in my life."

Klaus took a step closer to her, his chest rubbing against hers, "And just why is that Caroline? What do you feel for me that has you so terrified?"

Caroline's eyes widened as she stuttered, "I…I care for you…I mean I lo…" Panic began to set in as she almost spilled her deepest secret that she had carried since the moment she realized he wasn't who she thought he was, "No. No. We're friends Klaus. If this didn't work out, it would kill me to lose you. So we can't be more than what we are."

Klaus let go of her hand to grip her around the waist as he cupped her beautiful face, sensually whispering, "Oh but we can Caroline."

Caroline's breath hitched as he moved in slowly, giving her the chance to stop him. The closer his sinful lips came to hers the more she realized she couldn't fight this and leaned in to meet him halfway, pulling a surprised but contented groan from Klaus.

Their arms wrapped around each other as their lips moved in sync. Bodies pressed together tightly as their heads tilted to the side, opening their mouths to deepen the kiss.

Caroline pulled back to catch her breath, gripping the back of Klaus's head, her fingers tangled in his hair, as his lips moved to pay homage to her slender neck.

Arching her body into his she moaned at the arousal he triggered in her from just a few well-placed kisses, her lower half rubbing deliciously against his hardened shaft.

Klaus pulled his lips away from hers with a low groan at the contact, their harsh breath clashed together as their lust filled eyes drank the other in.

Reading the want in her eyes and not wanting to give her the time to change her mind, Klaus gripped her hips, lifting her onto her desk.

Caroline knew she should do something about the fact she was sitting on the Walsh paperwork but she couldn't find the will to care as Klaus's lips pressed against hers once again, his tongue tangling with her own as his hands slithered up her bare legs.

She groaned into his mouth, pulling him closer as his hands made their way under her skirt and up to the tops of her panties. Without thinking her body took over, lifting her hips to give him to room to remove them. She bit her lower lip as he pulled back, scorching her with his eyes as he slid her panties off with ease.

After dropping her panties forgotten to the desk beside her, Klaus slid his hands back under her skirt, cupping her bottom and yanking her into his hardened shaft pulling an echoing groan from both of them.

Klaus rolled his hips between her thighs causing Caroline's head to tilt back, his name spilling from her lips at the friction his jean covered erection gave her bare soaking core.

He ran his lips and tongue up the side of her neck to her ear, his harsh hot breath bringing goosebumps to her flesh as he huskily whispered to her, "Tell me you don't want this and I'll stop."

Klaus softly dragged his face against hers, his stubble scratching her skin deliciously; bring thoughts of the other areas on her body that would thoroughly enjoy such a feeling. His piercing eyes gazed into her lustful blue ones, "Tell me you can't see how perfect we are together and I'll walk away." He held a small feeling of hope as he felt her unconsciously tighten her grip on him.

Caroline could see the reluctant sincerity pouring out of his eyes along with the fear that she would ask him to leave. Her mind raced a mile a minute; this was Klaus, her friend. She didn't want to lose him over what could turn out to be nothing more than a passing fancy to him. Then again this was _Klaus_ , the man who in one night alone made her feel things she never thought possible. She knew if she didn't make up her mind now she ran the risk of losing him forever. And that was not something she ever wanted to experience, a Klaus-less life. Realizing what she had to do, she licked her lips before opening her mouth to answer him.

Instead of the words Klaus was anxiously waiting to hear, a buzzing noise filled the room.

"Miss. Forbes, I'm sorry. I tried to stop him but he wouldn't listen." Rachel's frantic voice echoed in the room.

Caroline gently pushed Klaus away from her and dashed around her desk, pressing down the button on the intercom, "What? Who?"

"Tyler." Caroline rolled her eyes at Klaus's smug smirk at the way Rachel spat his name out. "He is on his way back to your office right now."

"Okay, thanks." Caroline released the button, running her fingers through her hair frantically.

Seeing her beginning to freak out, Klaus scooped up her panties while she was distracted placing them into his pocket.

"Shit. Shit. Shit!"

Klaus rounded the desk, placing his hands on her upper arms, "Caroline calm down. It's only me in here, and it's only Tyler coming in."

Caroline scoffed knocking his hands away, "Yes, it's only you and Tyler." She spat with a frustrated energy, "The same Tyler that accused us of having an affair after I refused to give you up." Caroline caught the hurt that Klaus was trying to hide from her and calmed herself down slightly, "Look, I just don't need or want any more drama with him okay? And if he sees you in here that's all that will happen."

"Well what I am supposed to do Caroline? I can't leave through the door without passing him in the hall." He snipped sarcastically before chucking waving his hand towards her desk, "What would you have me do? Hide under the desk?"

Caroline's eyes lit up and before Klaus could sputter out a word in protest she had her desk chair pulled out and shoved him underneath her desk.

Caroline had just seated herself in her chair hoping to not only put up a cold impersonal front, but to also keep Tyler away from her side of the desk. She never felt more thankful then she did right at that moment that she had chosen a huge desk with a full wooden front. Of course at the time she had only seen the value of being able to remove her shoes without anyone knowing, not hiding a grown man underneath to avoid an unnecessary argument with her ex.

She had just managed to straighten out her papers making herself look busy as Tyler burst through the door. Lifting her head from the paperwork she leveled him with a hard detached gaze hoping he wouldn't be able to tell she was hiding something, "Tyler. What are you doing here? I thought we said all that needed said two weeks ago."

Tyler closed the door behind him running his fingers through his hair, "Look Care. I know you might not want to see me," He chose to ignore her muttered comment of, you got that right, "But I've been thinking and I think I made a mistake. I mean asking you to give up someone who has been a friend to you for so long was out of line. Especially considering I only did it because I was jealous."

Caroline tapped her pencil on the top of the desk, "Well congratulations, you finally saw what I was telling you all along. But that doesn't mean that was our only issue Tyler."

Tyler took a step closer to her desk, "I know and I want to try and work them out. I accused you of doing things that I shouldn't have."

"Things I never did you mean? I am not nor have I ever been a cheater Tyler. You should have known me better than that." She seen him smile slightly, taking her comment as permission to move closer. Quickly holding her hand up to stop him from coming any closer she continued just as emotionless, "This doesn't change anything between us Tyler. It's still over."

Under the desk Klaus gritted his teeth together letting a growl slip through in vexation as Tyler started spouting out verbal garbage about how the two of them should try again. Caroline must have heard him since she pushed at him with her foot to tell him to stay quiet. He was ready to end this charade and come out of hiding when he looked up and caught sight of her slightly opened legs. A wicked smirk curved his lips as he remembered he still had her panties in his pocket.

Caroline was trying to refrain from rolling her eyes at Tyler's long drawn out explanations on why he thought they should get back together when she felt hands running up the inside of her legs only stopping once they parted her thighs. She felt her face grow hot with the knowledge that there was Tyler, pacing and rambling on not five feet away from her while Klaus was under her desk, parting her thighs and looking at her still wet naked core.

She sucked in a quiet breath as she felt him spread her lower lips open, his hot breath ghosting over her core made her shift her hips in need. Klaus pressed against her just a touch harder, as if to tell her to stay still. Trying to maintain her composer she inhaled a calming breath and settled her body down, letting her body relax back into her chair while her mind was screaming in question of why she was letting this happen.

She felt his stubble scratching against her inner thighs, just as she had envisioned earlier, before his tongue touched her giving a tentative lick along her slit up to her throbbing clit. Her stomach muscles clenched at the feel of his hot tongue sliding along her outer core.

Deciding not to tease her, Klaus wrapped his lips around her clit sucking it harshly as his tongue wickedly flicked over it making her thighs shake at the pleasure it brought her.

Caroline bit down on her lower lip, using all of her concentration to contain her moans of satisfaction and pleasure. She did fine until she felt his hand shift suddenly as he pushed two fingers into her body, crooking his fingers to rub against her sweet spot.

The torturous suction of his lips, the wicked movements of his tongue combined with the constant curling of his fingers had her face flushing and the pencil snapping in her hand as she orgasmed, biting her lip so hard she drew blood. Klaus's quiet groan vibrated against her sending delicious sparks rough her as she twitched from the aftershocks of the intense pleasure her gave her.

As she came to, she somehow found enough power over herself to clear her throat to try and cover up what had just occurred. Her mind began functioning once more and she was sure that Tyler had caught onto what was happening right there in front of him by the look on his face.

Tyler cringed as he looked at her for the first time since he began his speech about them getting back together. Seeing the look on her face he sighed, "Okay Care. I get it, you're angry. I guess I just wanted to know I tried everything I could, that I said everything I needed to say to you so you would be sure about your decision." He hesitantly looked at her, "Do you think we still have a chance?"

All her attention had been so focused on what Klaus was doing to her under her desk, that Caroline had no idea what he had been saying. All she did know was she was beyond relieved that it seemed as though he had no clue what had just happened not five feet in front of him. She looked at him sternly, "No Tyler, we don't and I think you should leave now." She watched as he opened his mouth no doubt to try again but she swiftly shook her head, "Just go Tyler."

With a simple nod of his head and a dejected sigh he turned and left her office closing the door behind him.

Caroline sat still for a few minutes to catch her breath while she waited for Rachel to tell her Tyler had left. Once the message came through, she pulled back from her desk and jumped out of the chair.

Klaus stood, stretching his body after being cramped under the desk for so long with a giant smug smirk on his face.

Caroline smacked his chest, "I can't believe you did that! With Tyler right there in the room!"

Klaus chuckled at her outrage, "Well you didn't exactly stop me now did you Caroline?"

Caroline blushed, her mouth floundering open and closed knowing she couldn't deny that.

"It's a travesty really." Klaus commented as he wiped the remaining evidence of her arousal from his face with a handkerchief.

"What is?" Caroline asked a little breathlessly as she adjusted her skirt back into place trying to ignore his casual tone, knowing it meant he was about to say something that would either make her laugh or piss her off.

"That after all the time that bloke had the pleasure of being with you, he still cannot tell your I'm-so-angry-I-might-explode face from your I'm-coming-from-an-intense-orgasm face." Klaus shook his head in mock despair, tsking, "Such a travesty indeed." Placing the handkerchief back into his inside jacket pocket his eyes flicked back to her with a smirk.

Caroline's eyes widened comically, a small part of her wanted to defend Tyler but then reality set in, she never really did have an orgasm like the ones this man gave her when she was with Tyler. Or with anyone at all for that matter her mind grumbled. So instead she let her laughter ring out, bringing a pleased happy grin to Klaus's face.

Klaus pulled her into his arms, cutting off her laughter by pressing his lips to hers. His lower half pushed against her, letting her feel his still prominent arousal as their lips moved slowly together.

Caroline's hand left the side of his face to slowly trail down to his chest circling her fingers over where she knew his tattoo resided. Releasing his lips with a sigh, she flicked her eyes up at him asking flirtatiously, "Am I worth the wait?"

Klaus ran his hands down her sides to her hips, pulling her gently against him as he told her passionately, "You are worth everything Caroline."

"Good." She smirked before pulling away from him completely. Giggling under her breath at his stunned confused face she went back to her chair and sat down going back to her paperwork.

"I…what…Caroline?" Klaus sputtered embarrassingly.

"I still have a deadline Klaus." She said before lifting her gaze to him with a soft smile, "But if you want to, you can pick me up tonight. Say eight o'clock?"

Klaus grinned happily with the knowledge that she wasn't brushing him off. He nodded his head in agreement, "Here or your place?"

"My place. I'll text you my new address."

Klaus picked up her hand and lifted it to his mouth placing a soft kiss on her knuckles while looking at her tenderly, "Until then Love."

Caroline watched him walk out the door, tilting her head and licking her lips at the way his jeans fit him so perfectly with a smile. She couldn't help but think maybe it wouldn't be so bad giving in to what she felt for him. Maybe, just maybe, they had a chance at making this work.

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I own nothing but what is mine. How about you drop me a line.


	7. Twilight Zone

Happy Klaroline AU Week! Today is day One, Crossover/Fusion Day.

I went with a Twilight crossover. I hope you like it. A new story should be posted everyday this week. I have most of them completed, just a couple more to finish up!

I own nothing of TVD, TO or Twilight.

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The force of the wind picked up leafs and kicked up the dirt, swirling it around the girls as if they were in the center of a tornado.

Caroline shouted frantically, "Bonnie stop!"

"I can't!" Bonnie's panicked green eye darted to Caroline with frustrated and frightened tears welling up. "I can't close it! I don't know what to do!"

The vortex spun violently around them, Caroline looked around wildly trying to find a way out when a sudden figure jumped through the swirling debris hitting the ground with a roll before he popped up onto his feet.

"Klaus?" Caroline looked at him in surprise before her eyes turned hard, "What the hell?! You were supposed to be keeping an eye on things from the outside!"

"And you were supposed to be in here keeping the witch calm! It seems you failed to do that Sweetheart." Klaus's scathing tone only bristled her already frazzled nerves.

"You were the one that suggested we try to help her control the Expression magic!"

"Yes to help defeat our fellow foe, not cause a vortex to open up wide!" Klaus shouted as he waved his arms around them.

"If you have any suggestions Klaus now would be the time! I can't hold this much longer." Bonnie gritted painfully from between her clenched teeth.

"The only way to stop it is to complete it." Klaus said solemnly as he flashed over to Bonnie taking hold of her upper arms as he told her quickly, "Find Kol. Tell him what you did; he will know how to bring us back."

"Wait! What do you mean bring us back?! Back from where?" Caroline asked with huge rounded eyes.

"Where ever she is sending us Love." Klaus answered with a grim look before putting his attention back to the witch that was shaking violently with the force of the magic's hold on her. He brought Bonnie in closer to him, his stern voice offered no room for her to question the importance of his next words, "You must remember this spot Bonnie. _This_ _exact spot_. If you are off even an inch we will never return. Do you understand?"

Bonnie nodded her head with wide tearful eyes.

"Good."

With that Klaus shoved her with all his might out of the vortex.

"What the hell did you do?!" Caroline roughly grabbed his arm spinning him to face her. "We need Bonnie to make this stop!"

Klaus removed her hand from his arm, "There is no stopping it once it's started." Yanking her into his embrace he yelled over the rushing sounds of the wind, "You better hang on Love! We're in for a hell of a ride!"

The air around them felt heavier, pressing down on them so hard that they clung to each other tighter as they attempted to breathe from their crushing lungs. Their ears popped as the sound of the roaring winds became stronger and louder. Caroline's blonde hair whipped around her head getting caught in both their mouths.

Then suddenly everything stopped.

For a spilt second it felt as if they were both suspended in nothing but air before they were suddenly ripped apart, arms waving frantically in the effort to grab hold of each other before they were dumped unceremoniously to the hard ground with a force that knocked the air from their lungs.

They both laid sprawled out on the ground trying to catch their breaths, their heads turned to face each other, a look of relief passed over Klaus's face when he seen Caroline had made it through virtually unharmed and was with him. The relief was short lived when her face turned hard and she jumped up off the ground with him following suit.

"What the actual fuck Klaus?!" She shouted at him as she shoved his chest with both hands, "Why did you push Bonnie away? Was this just some stupid attempt to spend time with me because of your freaky obsession? HUH?!" With every word she spoke she continued to shove him, not noticing that the shade from the dense trees was lessening as she pushed him towards an open meadow. "If Bonnie were here…"

Klaus had had enough of her incessant pushing and shouting, he took hold of her hands by the wrists, yelling over her, "If Bonnie were here with you, you both would have been stuck here forever!"

Caroline froze as she starred at him, "What do you mean?" Her eyes narrowed at him critically, "Have you seen this before?"

"No but I have heard of such a thing happening. And from those accounts, the only times others made it back in one piece, if at all, was when the casting witch stayed behind to correct the spell."

Caroline began hyperventilating at the thought of never making it back home, "Oh my God. What if she doesn't figure it out? What if we are stuck here, wherever the hell we are, forever? My…my mom…I…what…"

Klaus softened as he watched her begin to panic, taking a step closer to her he bent his knees putting his face directly in line with hers as he made soothing circles with his fingertips on the inside of her wrist, speaking softly and calmly to her, "Hey, hey. It's alright Caroline. I won't let anything happen to you here. I sent Bonnie to find Kol. He knows of how to bring us back." He smiled gently with a tilt of his head as her watery blue eyes searched his, whispering delicately, "All we have to do is stick close to the area and they will bring us back in no time at all."

Caroline mimicked the slow steady pace of his breathing, feeling a calm settle over her as she starred into his honest eyes. She felt a blush steal her cheeks as she took notice of how close they were standing and the gentle swirl of his fingers bringing goosebumps to her flesh.

Hastily she pulled her hands out of his, rubbing the places where he had touched her with a nervous lick of her lips.

Klaus preen happily inside with the new knowledge that she wasn't as ill affected by him as she attempt to put off. Cocking his head to the side with his elbow placed out for her to take hold of, he smirked, "Why don't you and I take stock of the area, see just where it might be that we end up hmm?"

Caroline scoffed haughtily, dropping her arms to her sides and brushed past him knocking his arm out of her way, "I don't need you help walking thank you very much."

Klaus's eyes twinkled as he admired her backside swaying as she stomped away from him, oh how he loved that fire she had within her.

Catching up to her quickly he fell in step next to her, "I was only playing the part of a gentleman, Love. A true gentleman never leaves a Lady unattended."

"Please." Caroline snorted with a roll of her eyes, "You are no gentleman and we both know it."

"Well now, I would be happy to show you just how gentleman-like I can be Caroline," His smirk turned devious as he added huskily, "Unless you would rather me act ungentlemanly towards you?" running a single finger down her arm, smiling widely as she yanked her arm away from him with a cold look.

"I would rather you just stop talking, but that's not going to happen is it? I swear, sometimes I think you just like to hear yourself speak."

"So you think of me do you? Tell me Love, just how often do you think of me? And please, don't refrain from the when's and where's, or what you were doing when such thoughts cross your delectable mind Caroline." His teasing smirk and playful eyes made Caroline giggle uncontrollably.

"You're disgusting!" He waggled his eyebrows at her with a wide grin making her realize he was only teasing her; "You really are full of yourself you know that?" She said between her giggles. She stopped him with a soft touch to his arm, "But thanks for getting my mind off everything."

Klaus huffed bashfully as he began walking beside her into a meadow of tall grass and purple flowers. He was only part way joking with her, but he was happy to see that he could bring a genuine smile along with her glorious laughter from the blonde beauty.

As they strode further into the meadow they encountered two sets of eyes stared at them, Klaus assessed the teenage male and female standing a few yards ahead of them with a devilish grin.

"Oh look Love; it seems we've stumbled upon a snack or two." He said looking sideways at Caroline before flashing behind the brown haired girl, taking her within his grasp.

"Klaus! Leave her alone!" Caroline shouted as she flashed to stand in front of them.

"Oh forgive me Love, as a gentleman, I should give the lady first choice, would you prefer the girl over the boy then?" Klaus cockily asked her which prompted an angry huff from her as she crossed her arms.

"You know I don't drink from humans."

No sooner did that leave her mouth before an inhuman growl echoed through the meadow.

"Let her go!" The dark haired male growled as he shoved Klaus off the girl faster than the human eye could detect, pinning him down to the ground.

"Oh, well looks as though you are not so human after all. But then, neither am I Mate." Klaus dropped his fangs, his eyes turning yellow as he reversed their position in a heartbeat.

Golden colored eyes stared back up at Klaus in shock, "You…You're not human." His forehead furrowed in confusion, "But the blood…I can hear your heart pumping the blood through your veins."

"I haven't been a human for over a thousand years Mate. What of yourself?" Klaus hissed through his fangs, "I hear no blood rushing through you, now your female companion however is a different story."

"You'll not touch her!" The golden eyes boy hissed up at him, struggling to release himself from Klaus's hold.

"Of course he won't!" Caroline reassured them as she stood towering over the two men on the ground, glancing towards the girl shaking in fright with a soft gentle smile, "He won't touch you, I'll make sure of it alright?" Caroline frowned as the girl jerkily nodded her head. She grabbed ahold of Klaus's stiff shoulder, "Get off him."

Klaus reluctantly released the boy and slowly stood in front of Caroline, keeping a close eye on him as he stood and flashed to the shaking human girl wrapping his arms around her. Klaus turned his head to Caroline with a playful pout, "But I am feeling a bit peckish Love."

Caroline rolled her eyes and shoved him aside, "Will you just stop." Shaking her head at him she left his side with a sunny smile at the other two. Sticking her hand out in greeting, "Hi, I'm Caroline."

The boy looked at her skeptically before his ingrained manners kicked in and he took hold of her hand delicately, "Edward Cullen. This is Bella Swan."

Caroline shivered after she released his hand, "Wow! Your hand is like ice!"

The human girl giggled, "That's the first thing I told him too."

Caroline's eyes crinkled with a soft smile when she noticed the loving glance Edward gave the musically laughing Bella.

Klaus rolled his eyes with a scoff as he stepped up next to the group, "It's bad form not to make introductions, Love."

Caroline scoffed, "It's also bad form to attack people, but fine whatever." She replied sarcastically, waving her hand between them, "The megalomaniac here is Klaus. Klaus, Edward and Bella."

Klaus gently picked the human girl's hand, bending slightly at the hip to place a kiss on her knuckles, "Charmed." causing Caroline to roll her eyes at his dramatic display and the slight blush on the girls face, though she did notice Edward looking at Klaus rather grimly.

"So where are we?" Caroline asked glancing around the meadow.

"You mean to say you don't know where you are?" Edward asked them in surprise.

Caroline nervously rubbed her arm with her hand, "Well we traveled pretty far pretty fast."

Edward nodded his head as if he understood which Caroline knew he most likely assumed she meant flashing, "We're in the forest just outside of Forks, Washington."

"So what are you?" Bella asked suddenly, her blush deepening as she looked between Caroline and Klaus, "Sorry, I tend to talk without thinking."

Caroline smiled waving her off with a soft laugh, "It's fine. I do the same thing all the time. We're vampires."

"Speak for yourself Sweetheart, I'm a hybrid. The Original Hybrid to be precise." Klaus spoke with pride.

"What's a hybrid?" Bella asked curiously.

Caroline smothered a giggle at Klaus's almost affronted look, "Half vampire, half werewolf and all around pain in the ass." Caroline raised a cocky eyebrow at him as his wounded look turned her way, replying with a shrug of her shoulders, "What? It's the truth."

"Wait," Edward spoke in confusion, "If you are vampires, then how is it possible for blood to be moving throughout your bodies?"

"It's quite simple really, we hail from another land." Klaus told him as if this situation was an everyday occurrence.

"I'm sorry, but I don't follow. I've met vampires from all over the world, I am one myself and none of us have blood moving through our bodies or heartbeats for that matter." Edward spoke with his eyes narrowed in suspicion, pulling Bella closer into his side.

"What Klaus is trying to say is that we come from an entire different world." Caroline said with a roll of her eyes; leave it to Klaus to cause them problems.

Bella's eyes widened, "You mean like aliens?"

Klaus dropped his head back with a groan at this girl's naivety, "Sorry to disappoint Sweetheart but no, not like aliens, more like from a different dimension altogether."

At their skeptical gazes Caroline rushed to explain, "My friend Bonnie was overtaken by a magic called Expression. We were out in the woods trying to help her get a hold on it when she accidentally created this weird vortex thingy. Klaus and I got sucked in and now here we are." Caroline's blue eyes sparkled as an idea hit her, "Hey! You two don't happen to know a witch do you?" She looked to Klaus before they could respond, "Do you think we could raise our chances of getting home if we had a witch here do the spell?"

Klaus hated to have to kill her excitement; she just looked so beautiful with that glimmer of hope in her eyes. He shook his head slowly, "No Caroline, it has to be the witch who sent us here who recreates the spell and it has to be done from the side in which in originated from."

"Witch?" Edward scoffed in disbelief, "Witches aren't real, they are just a made-up myth."

"And so are vampires Mate. Yet here we stand." Klaus replied with a wave of his hand, it was beyond him how someone who was a part of the supernatural world could be so dense.

Caroline's shoulders slumped, "So I take it that means there are no witches here. How weird is it that you have vampires but no witches." She asked rhetorically.

"We have werewolves too." Bella said.

Klaus's attention perked up at this information, curiously wondering if he would have time to see the differences with the werewolves in this land. Something told him it wouldn't be too hard to find one considering when the girl mentioned them, Edwards shoulders stiffened. Klaus pondered just why that was, and how dangerous it would be if they crossed paths with one. His gaze flicked to Caroline and his mouth was set into a grim line. He would have to be extra vigilant as to not allow Caroline to be near one, there was no telling if his blood would cure her if she was bitten. Not that he would ever allow such a thing to come to pass. He wanted to question them about the werewolves of this land, but did not want to come off as unknowing of such things, he felt extremely thankful for Caroline's intense curiosity and failure to hold her tongue.

"That's so crazy! You have vampires and werewolves but no witches?" Caroline took a step unconsciously closer to Bella; the two men could see the instant friendship form before their eyes.

"Yeah, my best friend Jacob is a werewolf." Bella told her with a small smile.

Klaus smirked at the tension in Edwards body at the mere mention of this other boys name, seems he had some healthy competition, something Klaus was all too familiar with when it came to the girl he wished to court.

"As far as any magical type stuff, some of the vampires have extra gifts. Edward can read peoples thoughts." Bella said excitedly before muttering, "Not mine though, for whatever reason that is. I still think something is wrong with me."

Edward playfully rolled his eyes and smiled at her, "I've told you Bella, there is nothing wrong with you. I'm glad I can't read your thoughts."

Caroline and Klaus glanced at each other thinking of Silas before quickly turning their suspicious eyes towards Edward.

Edward raised his hands, "Don't worry, I can't pick up so much as a stray thought from either of you and believe me I tried."

Klaus flashed over to him, taking hold of his face in his hands, locking his widening eyes with Edward's to compel the truth out of him, "You will be honest with me. You will tell me whether you can read our minds or not."

"I'm not lying." Edward snarled as he knocked Klaus's hands from his face.

"You can't be compelled." Klaus spoke in shock, sniffing but finding no trace of vervain in his system.

"What do you mean by compelled?" Bella asked curiously.

"A vampire," Caroline rolled her eyes at Klaus's huff, "Or a _hybrid_ , can compel others to do what they want. Sometimes the people they compel forget what they were told to say or do, but other times they don't. It can be a really unpleasant experience. But unlike some people, not all of us like to use our ability to compel people for selfish reasons."

The uncomfortable tone and hitch in Caroline's voice as she explained what compulsion was made Klaus narrow his eyes and purse his lips in contemplation. Something was there, hidden beneath the surface. Something had happened that she was trying in vain to hide and he promised himself that once this ordeal was though he would be taking the time and using his resources to figure out just what she was hiding.

At that moment the clouds hanging overhead decided to clear, filling the meadow with bright sunlight. Then the most oddly beautiful thing Caroline had ever seen happened.

"Holy shit you sparkle!"

Caroline's screech drew Klaus's attention towards the, my God yes he was, sparkling vampire beside him.

Caroline flashed up to Edward, who took a step back at her sudden movement, as her eyes raced over his sparkling skin.

"It's like thousands of tiny rainbow crystals are embedded in your skin! That is so freaking awesome!" Caroline exclaimed with a clap of her hands. She chanced glance down to her arms, her face falling to a frown with her lip stuck out in a pout causing Klaus to burst out in laughter.

"What?" Caroline huffed with the pout still protruding on her sweet lush lips.

Klaus couldn't contain his laughter as he wave a hand in her direction, "Just because the vampires of this land glitter like fairies doesn't mean you will Caroline."

Caroline folded her arms over her chest with a huff and a casual shrug of her shoulders, trying to play it off as if she wasn't embarrassed by his riotous laughter, "Whatever. I just think it's cool as all." As he continued chuckling she turned away from him muttering, "Stupid hybrid. What do you know anyway?"

Klaus pressed his lips together in an effort to hold back his next chuckle at her ire; stepping up beside her he placed his hand on her shoulder only to have her twist away, "Oh come on Love." His voice still carried his humor at her, "No need to be jealous that you don't sparkle in the sun."

Caroline spun to face him, her hands on her hips as she spat, "I am so not jealous."

Klaus titled his head to the side, his tone that of trying to calm a spoiled child, "Of course you're not Caroline."

A sudden rustling could be heard coming through the trees at a fast pace. Klaus threw his arm out, pushing Caroline behind him. He ignored her gasp of outrage and pushed her back behind him with a growl when she tried to get around him.

In the very next instant a huge wolf came crashing through the trees.

Caroline latched onto Klaus from behind in shock, even he took a few steps back his eyes went wide and his mouth dropped at the sight of the wolf.

The auburn colored wolf stood nearly as big as a large grizzly bear. It's mouth was pulled back showcasing its mammoth sized teeth dripping with saliva as a loud aggressive growl left its jowl.

Klaus reached behind him to take a hold of Caroline, ready to flash her way from danger at a moment's notice.

Bella looked around at the panicked couple lifting her hands in the air, "It's ok. He won't hurt you."

She walked up to the beast and Caroline sucked in a breath in shock as Bella began explaining to the wolf that there was no danger here with Edward backing her up even as he stood off to the side with a strange amount of tension set in his body.

Klaus and Caroline watched in awe as the wolf stood straight, shaking his large body out of his tense aggressive crouch then leaned into Bella with his huge muscled neck wrapping around her as if to give her a hug, the girl giggled and shoved him as he licked the side of her face with the tip of his tongue.

"Ew Jake! Gross!" Bella exclaimed in laughter.

"Oh so this is Jacob." Caroline breathed out without thinking.

Bella turned and noticed Caroline still hiding behind a tense Klaus, "Hey Caroline, Jake won't hurt you I swear."

At Bella's encouraging smile and wave Caroline hesitantly creeped over to them. She couldn't get over the sheer size of the thing! Her hand lifted without her permission, his fur just called to her to see if it was as coarse as it looked, she quickly pulled her hand back when the massive wolf's eyes looked at her with all the knowledge of his human counterpart, "May I?" She grinned widely at the roll of his eyes and his huff as he shifted closer to her.

She ran her hand over his giant head and down his neck, "Wow, your fur is so soft! I mean it looks like it would be coarse and rough but this has got to be the softest thing I have ever felt." Caroline giggled as he preened and purred under her attention when she scratch behind his ear, "It' so strange."

The wolf, if possible, cocked an eyebrow at her as Bella asked, "What do you mean?"

"Well the werewolves where we're from are all aggressive and don't know what is happening around them. My ex, Tyler, I was with him once when he turned and he didn't even recognize me at all. If it wasn't for the reinforced cell he was in I probably wouldn't even be standing here." Caroline looked into Jacob's eyes, "But you know what's going on around you, don't you?"

At his nod of his head Caroline laughed, "Amazing! And you're like, twenty times bigger than the werewolves where we're from!" She turned to face Klaus excitedly, "Can you believe this?"

Klaus huffed as he stood tall next to a brooding Edward, "Sure if you like that sort of thing. He's so huge I would suppose it only makes him a bigger target." He didn't like Caroline standing next to the behemoth wolf, he liked even less that this wolf would tower nearly four times the size of his wolf. Though he did smirk at Edwards's quiet chuckle over his quip.

"Oh you're just jealous you're not as big as Jacob." Caroline teased with her hand running through Jacob's fur.

Klaus bit back the retort about size, not wanting to come off as an insecure male, instead he took the few steps over to Caroline, whispering gruffly in her ear, "You know Caroline, if you really want a wolf to pet, I'd be more than willing to shift for you."

The innuendo wasn't lost on her as her cheeks heated and she squeaked in disbelief, choosing to go with the more obvious issue, "You'd kill me!"

Klaus hummed in her ear, "As the Original Hybrid I am fully aware of my surroundings and even then, I am quite sure I would know your scent anywhere and in any form Caroline." His eyes darkened slightly as she shivered at his purr of her name.

Caroline tried to cover her reaction to him with her standard scoff, "Whatever Klaus."

Klaus studied the animal with a critical eye; lifting his hand with his head cocked to the side waiting for permission from the magnificent beast. At the wolf's nod Klaus ran his hands over the large wolf in awe of the power his form held, "You must be able to out run anything. Fantastic, absolutely fantastic."

"So you're no longer jealous of his size?" Caroline teased from beside him.

"Oh Sweetheart, I am more than secure with my size as well as my capabilities." He pinned her to the ground with a gasp as his darkening eyes bore into hers. "Besides, I am just admiring this amazing creature. He is simply remarkable."

Caroline and Klaus snapped their heads towards Edward when they heard his snarl, then back at Jacob as the wolf seemed to chuff out a laugh.

"Oh my, my, my." Klaus exclaimed, "It seems we have a bit of a love triangle on our hands here as well."

"What are you talking about? Jake is just my friend." Bella explained.

"Oh I'm sure that's what the boy wants you to think." Klaus said with a smirk, "Isn't that right, pup?" The wolf's growl made Klaus's eyes sparkle with mischief, "As I thought."

"Klaus that's enough." Caroline scolded him.

"Oh come on sweetheart! Don't tell me you can't see the eerie similarities to our very own doppelganger's love life here!" He asked her with a chuckle.

Caroline glanced over at Edward who stood angrily brooding off to the side ever since Jacob had crashed into the meadow. "Well, he kind of does remind me of Stefan." She cocked her head to the side, "I just can't figure out why though."

"That would be the broody demeanor Love." He smiled widely as Caroline choked back a giggle at Edward's growl of irritation, "Don't worry Mate, as I am sure the lovely Caroline here would agree with me that we are rooting for you."

The wolf next to him growled, "Oh come off it Mate. The girl doesn't even see you that way. You should learn to cut your losses while you're ahead."

Bella stepped in as the wolf turned growling angrily at the hybrid, "You don't know what you are talking about. Jake is just my friend. He knows it and Edward knows it too right?"

Edward shifted uncomfortably on his feet, not wanting to get into this conversation, now or every. Jacob's thoughts filtered through his mind bringing a growl of his own out, "Watch what you think _Dog_."

"Edward!" Bella exclaimed in shock.

Edward pointed at Jacob, "You don't know what he really thinks about Bella! What he really wants!"

As the two started arguing with a growling wolf in-between them, Caroline and Klaus heard a strong force of wind pick up within the forest.

Klaus grabbed ahold of Caroline's arm, cockily telling the others over their arguing, "Well, best of luck with all this Mate." before flashing Caroline away towards the sounds of the roaring wind.

They skidded to a stop as they encountered a massive swirling vortex of dirt, leafs and other debris. Klaus glanced down at a shaken Caroline, placing his hands upon her shoulders he gently turned her to face him, "We'll be fine Caroline." He raised his hand, brushing her hair behind her delicate ear, "We jump through and it will be over as quick as it started. Just promise me one thing."

"What?" Caroline asked as she tried to calm her nerves.

"Don't let go of me." He told her sternly as he readied them for the jump in only to stop as Caroline spoke.

"Okay, before we go in there can I just ask you something?"

"What is it Sweetheart?" Klaus asked as he glanced at her curiously.

"Was that not the weirdest thing you have ever seen?" She asked him with large disbelieving eyes.

Klaus laughed heartily, "Oh the stories I could tell you Caroline! Not by a long shot Love, not even close." He placed his index finger on Caroline's lips. He didn't have to be a mind reader to know she was about to ask him what he could have possibly seen that could be stranger than what they had just witnessed. He just knew _her_. "I'll tell you what; I'll tell you all about my travels over dinner."

Caroline bit her lower lip as she looked at him in contemplation, on one hand it was dinner with _Klaus_ , Mr. Resident Evil himself. Yet on the other it was dinner with _Klaus_ who had to have some pretty amazing stories that she was dying to hear.

She tossed her whipping hair over her shoulder, "Fine." At his smile she pointed her finger in his face, "But it's only for the stories! Don't get any ideas Mister!"

"Duly noted." He said with a smirk before yanking her into his arms, "Now, what do you say we get out of this Twilight Zone?"

"On the count of three?" Caroline asked nervously.

"One… Two… Three."

They both jumped at full speed through the swirling violent mass, landing in its center gripping each other tightly. Just as before the roaring of the wind screamed around them before it popped to a sudden stop then dumped them onto the hard ground.

"Caroline! Oh my God I did it! It worked!" Bonnie's excited voice could be heard.

"Well, well, well brother! Look at you all cozy with the tasty blonde. Must have been quite the ride there brother, eh?" Kol taunting voice made Klaus narrow his eyes at him as Caroline extracted herself from his arms.

Bonnie rushed forward pulling Caroline into her arms, "I'm so sorry Care! Are you alright? What happened? Where did you end up?"

Caroline laughed as she pulled out of Bonnie's arms, "Geez Bon, I thought I was the one to ask all the rapid questions! Anyways, I'll tell you all about it later. Right now I'd like to get home and get all this dirt off me."

The girls began to walk away but Caroline froze when Klaus's smug voice echoed around them.

"I'll pick you up tomorrow Caroline. Say, Six O'clock?"

Caroline turned to look at him over her shoulder, "Fine. But if you're late then dinner is off."

Klaus grinned widely as the girls walked out of sight, turning to face a shell-shocked Kol, "What the hell happened when you two were gone? She couldn't stand you before?"

Klaus laughed as he slung his arm over Kol's shoulders, pulling him into a walk, "Sometimes brother, you just have to know the right ways to incise a woman."

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Ok, I am not too sure how I feel about this one. I played around with it and changed it a hundred times. Let me know what you think. Thank you!


	8. A Blast from Future's Past

Klaroline AU Week Day Two: Right Place, Right Time.

Time Travel.

This story is dedicated and made as a birthday present to a wonderful reader of mine, **helimoen.**

She sent me the prompt a few months ago asking for Caroline's daughters to show up during the infamous Klaroline scene in 5x11.

Here you are **helimoen**! I hope your birthday on the 16th is amazing and I hope you enjoy your early birthday present! All 9,402 words of it! You better get comfy! ;)

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"I will walk away and I will never come back." A slight smirk made its way to his face when he uttered, "I promise." As he calculated in his mind that she did not specify just _where_ he was to walk away from, that gave him a loophole that he could work around.

As she took a step closer to him Klaus held his breath, wiping all the emotion from his face, unsure of just what she would say next. His eyes searched hers for any hint of what was to happen next.

Caroline steadied herself as she stepped closer to him, she had no idea what would come of this but the part of her that she continued fighting against, that she pushed down deeply into herself couldn't be quieted any more.

Standing only inches away from him now her wide blue eyes flickered between his widening blue-gray eyes and his slightly parted lips.

"Good." She simply stated before crashing her lips against his.

The shock of finally feeling her lips pressed against his own wore off within a second, he felt as if he was floating in a heavenly daze as her hand cupped his cheek and her glorious body pressed firmly into his own.

The heat that started as a simple spark grew to a blazing flame as they slowly pulled away from each other. Breathing heavily they smiled brightly at each other, his speaking of how he much wanted her along with his elation with the complete confidence at the fact that she wanted him just as much. A bubble of laughter made its way from her chest as their eyes spoke of their undeniable need for each other.

Seeing the approval in her eyes he pulled her into him crashing his lips to her soft wanting ones. Holding her close he was ready to flash them against the nearest surface, be it the ground, a rock or a tree, he cared not. He only wanted to be as close to her as physically possible.

He barely made it a single step before a wave of magic was felt surrounding them and two tiny gasps of "Mommy!" could be heard around them.

Caroline pulled away from Klaus in shock as she felt two sets of tiny arms wrap around her legs holding her tightly as they shook in what she could only guess to be shock and a touch of fear.

Caroline looked down with her mouth hanging open as two of the cutest faces she had ever seen gazed back up at her, their questions flying out of their mouths.

"Mommy what happened?"

"Mommy where are we?"

"Mommy who is this man you are kissing?"

"Mommy why are you looking at us like that?"

Caroline stuttered for a moment as she looked down at them then back up at Klaus who stood there looking just as perplexed about the current happenings as she was.

Not wanting to scare the two little girls any more than necessary Caroline knelt down in front of them both. Speaking as softly and calmly as possible, "Okay Sweeties, why don't you tell me what's going on and I can help you find your Mommy alright?"

The two girls looked into each other's eyes, both reaching towards one another at the same time to grip their hands together tightly. Caroline looked back up at Klaus, hoping to gain his help to which he just shrugged his shoulders, his hands spread out wide as he shook his head unsure of just what to make of this situation.

"Mommy don't you know us?" The little brown haired girl asked timidly.

Her brown eyes filling with tears pierced Caroline's heart in a way she had never felt before. "Sweetie I'm sorry. I'm not sure what you are going through but I've never had a child before, let alone two." Caroline sucked in a deep breath moving her hands forward to place one on each of their shoulders, "Look, I will help you…"

The moment her touched them, connecting all three of them together, images began flickering through her mind showing her things she never thought even remotely possible. Vaguely she heard the girls equally shocked gasps as well as Klaus's rushed questions of what was wrong. She felt strong hands grip her shoulders dragging her away from the girls.

Klaus cupped her face, wiping the tears from her cheeks that she unknowingly shed while he frantically asked her, "Caroline what's wrong? What happened? What did they show you?" He had been around long enough to sense a witch, and these two little girls were very powerful witches indeed.

Caroline's tear filled blue eyes flickered searchingly between his as her mind caught up with what she had just seen. Still sitting on the ground in Klaus's embrace she turned her head in disbelief towards the girls, "How…what…I mean it's not…" She released a shaky breath, "It's not possible. I…I…" She trailed off as she took in the hopeful looks from the girls in front of her then gasped, "Oh my God."

"Caroline! What is going on?" Klaus demanded as he turned her back to face him. "What did they show you?"

Caroline gazed back at him with wide astonished eyes as she uttered, "They're my daughters."

Klaus nearly reared back in shock, "What? How?"

Caroline's mouth floundered open and closed not knowing just how to explain to him what she was having a hard time explaining to herself.

"We can show you what we showed Mommy." The little dark haired girl said.

"You don't have to be scared." The blonde one added in.

Klaus's head snapped to the side as the little girls spoke to him. Indecision warred within him, he never trusted witches no matter how tiny and innocent they appeared to be. But something deep within him sparked, some feeling telling him that he could trust these two little ones.

Klaus gave them a stiff nod of his head and they reached their tiny little hands towards him each placing one on his cheeks. Images instantly began to flow through his mind and he was held captivated by the story they told him through pictures and memories of their own. By the time they were done he had no idea what to say, let alone think.

The girls cautiously pulled their hands back as their eyes flickered between the two adults sitting on the ground in front of them.

Caroline saw the hopeful light flicker within their eyes as they stared at her, waiting patiently for her reaction. Releasing a shaky breath she spoke cautiously, "Lizzie? Josie?"

Their matching smiles lit up their tiny faces as they threw themselves into her arms, "Mommy!"

Caroline instinctively wrapped her arms around them as their heads rested on her shoulders. She looked at a speechless Klaus mouthing to him, "What do I do?"

Klaus smiled gently at her, his mind replaying a phone call with the one of the little ones crying in the background that he had yet to experience for himself. The conversation was muddled and distorted due to it being from the girl's infant memories but the intent was clear, his voice echoing through the line had soothed the tiny crying babe. "I believe introductions are in order don't you think, Love?"

"Yeah, okay." Caroline ran a hand soothingly down each of their heads, "Girls, this is my friend Klaus. Klaus this is Josie and Lizzie."

Klaus smiled softly at them and held his hand out with a chuckle at the timid brown haired Josie who stayed tucked within her Mother's grasp. It was shocking to him to even think of Caroline being a Mother. Klaus found that the little blonde, Lizzie, was more like Caroline with her outspoken nature.

Lizzie shook his hand firmly, her blue eyes widened and her mouth dropped in a perfect little O shape, "You're Mommy's friend we went to see in New Orleans."

Klaus chuckled at Caroline's scoff but smiled sweetly at Lizzie, "You came to see me in the future?"

Her little head bounced up and down sending her curls flying as she nodded and left her Mother's arms to walk closer to Klaus, "Uh huh. But we couldn't find you. The lady in the bar said they hadn't seen you for three years. Then Mommy got sad and we had to leave cause the bad people were chasing us."

Klaus's eyes narrowed at this new information about his future but his thoughts were interrupted by Caroline's outburst.

"I took you in a bar?!" She scoffed at her future self. "What the heck was I thinking? I can tell you right now that it will be the only time you will ever be in one again." Josie's giggle from in her lap drew her attention down to her. "What's so funny?" She asked the little girl with her head tilted to the side.

"That's what you said then too Mommy." Josie answered from behind her hands as she giggled.

Caroline couldn't help but smile at the little girl's infectious laughter no matter how odd it was hear herself being called Mommy.

Clearing his throat Klaus placed his hand on Lizzie's arm drawing her attention back to him as he asked her slowly, "You said that the lady in the bar told you I had not been seen for three years? Can you tell me what else she said Sweetheart?"

Lizzie bit her lower lip and her forehead crunched cutely as she thought back to that day trying to remember if the lady in the bar said anything else. She looked at the man that she felt had kind eyes and shook her head sadly, worried that she would disappoint him, "She didn't say anything else. Only that when Mommy asked for you that you hadn't been seen or heard from in three years. I'm sorry." Her head tilted down not wanting to see his kind eyes turn angry.

"Hey," Klaus said softly as he raised her chin back up to look at him, "It's alright Sweetheart. It's not your fault, that's all you know."

Her piercing blue eyes caused a pinch to rush through his heart, "You're not mad at me then?" she asked him hesitantly biting her lip much like her Mother.

Klaus laughed softly with a shake of his head as he gazed into her eyes, "No Sweetheart, of course not." Her tiny smile lit up her face causing a rush of warmth to hit both him and Caroline.

"Good!" She surprised Klaus by throwing herself into his arms, pulling back to smile at him, "I don't want you to be mad at me since you're Mommy's friend."

Klaus smirked, "So, your Mother talks about me does she?" He glanced over her little blonde head, his smirk widening at Caroline's scoff and roll of her eyes. He looked back to Lizzie, asking her in a staged whisper, "I would love to hear what all she has told you."

"Okay that's enough! No grilling my future children about what I may or may not have said about you." Caroline huffed, "I swear your ego is too big to even fit in the damn woods!"

"That's not what you were thinking just a short time ago Caroline." Klaus smirked, giving her a heated glare as he flicked his tongue over his lips.

Caroline's jaw dropped, "Seriously Klaus?! Now is so not the time."

A quiet rumble broke their staring contest.

Caroline rolled her eyes and looked down to Josie who was still sitting in her lap on the forest floor. Josie's cheeks blushed as she covered her stomach, "Sorry, I'm hungry Mommy. After we did that spell you said we would get pizza but then we ended up here instead."

"Can we go home now Mommy?" Lizzie asked from Klaus's lap.

Klaus couldn't help but tease her as her frantic eyes looked up at him not knowing what to do, "Yes Mommy," he smirked, "Can we go home now?"

Caroline ignored the smirk on Klaus's face and looked between the girls, "How about you two sit here for a minute while Mommy talks to Klaus." She grinned in happily as the girls agreed. She stood and motioned Klaus to follow her far enough away that the girls wouldn't over hear them, but close enough she could keep an eye on them.

Klaus folded his hands behind his back as they came to a stop and looked at her somberly, "As much as I wish for it, I don't think now is the best time to finish our little interlude." He leaned his upper body in close to whisper to her, "The little ones are watching."

Caroline threw her head back with her eyes squeezed shut, "Oh my God Klaus! Seriously?" At his full chuckle she dropped her head back leveling him with a hard stare, "That was not funny."

Klaus nodded his head, his face told her he understood but his eyes still twinkled with humor, "Of course not Love. How remiss of me. Now, what did you need to talk about that you didn't want the tiny ears hearing?"

Caroline's shoulders slumped as she began animatedly waving her hands around as she spoke, "I don't know what to do with them. I can't take them back to my house, my Mom would freak! Plus could you just imagine all the questions everyone would have if I suddenly showed up in Mystic Falls with two kids from an apparently alive Alaric?" Her wide eyes implored him to follow where she was going, throwing her hands in the air above her head, "I'd be thrown in the nut house, that's what would happen!"

"Caroline, calm down." He told her as he placed his hands on her shoulders, rubbing what he hoped would be soothing circles.

Caroline scoffed, knocking his hands away, "Don't you know the worst thing you can do is tell a freaking out woman to calm down."

"I do now." He grumbled as he rubbed his wrist where she hit him.

Rolling her eyes at his dramatics, "Oh come off it, I didn't even hurt you. What are you a child?"

Klaus dropped his arms to his side, "Well if you are going to be cruel then I see no reason for me to help you." He moved to walk beside her, smirking as she stopped him with her hand on his arm.

"Okay fine! I'm sorry. Now will you help me?" Caroline huffed.

"I don't think you truly mean that Love. You didn't even say please." Klaus teased.

Caroline's eyes narrowed as she growled, "Klaus."

"Alright fine. I just happen to know of a hotel not too far from here that we can stay in until we figure out how to send the girls home."

"Perfect! Thank you." Caroline clapped her hands ready to go tell the girls before she caught onto a certain word he had said. "Wait a minute, did you just say _we_?"

"You didn't think you could handle this all on your own now did you?" Before she could answer he interrupted her, "Do you have access to the grimoires needed? Do you have the cash on hand to book the hotel? I'm sure you won't be compelling your way into the room, wouldn't want in set a bad example for your daughter's now would you Love?"

Caroline bit her lower lip, eyeing him critically through winced eyes before she gave a firm nod of her head, "Fine. But we need to stop at a store before we get there. The girls are going to need clothes and then we can stop for pizza on the way. Do you want to take my car or yours?"

"We'll take yours." At Caroline's suspicious glare he rushed to continue, "Rebekah rode with me here, I'll just call her telling her something came up and she can be on her way and that I will follow along shortly."

"Are you sure you have time for this? I mean, if you have other stuff going on…" Caroline trailed off thinking of his promise to walk away from her; he wouldn't have done that if he didn't have something more important going on.

Klaus took hold of her hand, cradling it between both of his own, "I will always have time for you Caroline. Nothing more pressing is happening that can't wait a few extra days."

The honest heartfelt look in his eyes warmed her like nothing had before; still she couldn't help but say, "If you're sure."

He patted the top of her hand with a soft smile, "I'm sure Caroline."

"Alright, well I'll just go tell the girls while you call Rebekah." She smiled timidly at him as she slowly withdrew her hand from his.

Klaus heaved a sigh as he watched her walk away, crouching down to explain to her daughters what the plan was. _Her daughters._ The thought brought to mind the little wolf back in New Orleans that was apparently pregnant with his child. He had dreaded the day that Caroline learned of his little meaningless indiscretion with the girl, even worse, what had begun to grow because of it. It was the part of the motive behind his promise. That and he knew Caroline needed time to grow into herself before she could ever think of give him, giving _them_ , a real chance.

Klaus heaved another longing sigh. He could only hope that in light of this current situation Caroline found herself in, she would be more open to understanding his own _situation_ back in New Orleans. That it would help in her not cutting him out of her life for good. He would just have to wait and see if she would be receptive to learning the truth. After all, he had the next few days with her and her daughters to decide on what to say to her. Shaking the uncertain thoughts from his mind he pulled his phone out to send Rebekah a quick text, it would be far easier to do that than to listen to her incessant nitpicking about his duties back home.

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After a covert stop at the Mikaelson Manor for Klaus to flash in and retrieve the needed books and a few supplies, a fun yet stressful shopping trip to get the needed items for the girls as well as a few things for themselves and a quick trip in to grab a pizza, that even had Caroline salivating, the foursome found themselves now tucked into a cozy two bedroom hotel suite with both girls freshly bathed.

The girls were currently playing with the toys Klaus had graciously bought them. Caroline had grinned like a fool at how fast the thousand year old man had caved at their matching precious little pouts and pleases.

Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

Klaus walked out of the bathroom dressed in the casual lounge pants and Henley he bought, rubbing a towel over his hair, "It's all yours Love."

Caroline licked her lips as her eyes followed the bead of water that he missed as it rolled down the side of his neck that she just wanted to…

"Caroline?"

"Lick." She blushed as she shook her head, dragging her eyes away from his neck to his face. "I mean what?"

Klaus's lips curved into a smug smirk as he realized the trail her thoughts had taken, is the look in her eyes and the scent of her arousal in the air were anything to go by. He walked over to her, brushing against her in a way to make it seem as if it was unintentional, his pupils dilating at her quiet gasp. "I said the shower, it's all yours Caroline." His skin felt tight against his bones as he watched the shivers break out across her skin.

"Right. Shower." Caroline stared in his eyes in a daze, drawing him in it right along with her. Their bodies leaning in closer, lips just inches apart before the spell was broken by the twins giggles as they played completely unaware of what had almost happened between the adults in the room. Caroline pulled away from him, swiping her tongue across her lips taking in the phantom taste of him. "Okay, yeah. Well I'm just going to go," She pointed her thumb over her shoulder towards the bathroom making Klaus chuckle as she stumbled over a bag left on the floor.

Caroline righted her body and straightened her shirt with a blush, turning her back to him she marched with her head held high to the bathroom door only to pause and glance over her shoulder at him with a whisper, "Are you sure you're okay watching them?"

Klaus smiled with a nod of his head watching her smile softly before closing the door. He felt a warmth course through him when he realized she wasn't asking because she worried over the girls being safe with him, she was asking after his own comfort. Caroline may have only discovered she was a Mother within the past few hours but he could see the genuine love she held for the two girls.

And she trusted him with them.

The weight and the deep meaning of her trust settled over him like a soft warm blanket. With that feeling of comfort to guide him he spun on his heels and went over to sit on the sofa. His warm genuine smile was met with two equal adorable ones as the three settled in and Klaus began to weave them a story.

By the time Caroline had emerged from the bathroom the three other occupants of the hotel suite were sitting at the small dining table shifting through the scattered books and grimoires laid haphazardly over it. Caroline joined the group as they poured through them looking for anything information that would help in returning the twins home.

Once the girls yawned for the third time Caroline finally decided to call it quits for the night, "Okay girls, I think it's time to put you to bed." They both surprised her when they didn't even argue and got up and followed her into the bedroom.

Klaus watched on with a soft smile from the doorway as Caroline fell right into her role as a Mother with ease. It came so naturally to her that it only made him wonder if he would ever be ready to fill his own role as a Father.

Caroline kissed their foreheads, turning to snap off the bedside lamp, "Wait Mommy!"

"What is it?" Caroline asked gently as she knelt on the bed with one knee, leaning down with her hands pressed into the mattress.

"You always sing us to sleep." Lizzie told her and Josie added, "With your guitar too."

She wanted so badly to deny them, embarrassed that Klaus would be here to hear her sing, but their eyes were starting to fill with tired tears and their lower lips began to wobble. Caroline released a sigh, "I don't have my guitar with me, but…"

Lizzie smiled widely, "Yes you do Mommy, you told us you always kept it in your car after you learned to drive."

"Yeah," Josie added sweetly, "You said that you never knew when inspiration would strike."

Caroline blushed, "Well there is no denying that you're my kids. Only someone I raised would know how to put someone on the spot like this." She said before tickling their sides. "Ok fine, I'll go get it."

Klaus cleared his throat from the doorway, "No need Love, just tell me where it is and I'll go grab it for you."

Caroline grumbled nonsense under her breath as she went out into the living room to pull her keys from her purse. She handed them to Klaus, unable to look him in the eyes from her embarrassment, "It's under the mat in the trunk where the spare tire should be."

Klaus tried in vain to keep the chuckle from his voice, "You find it more important to drive around with a guitar in place of a spare tire?"

Caroline huffed to cover her own laughter at her silliness, "Did you or did you not grab one of your thousands of sketchbooks when you stopped at your house?" At his sheepish downward tilt of his head she laughed pointing her waving finger at him, "Right. Then no judging from you Mister! Now go get my guitar."

Klaus nodded his head with his lips pressed; reminding her of the look he gave her when she accepted to be his date to the Miss Mystic Pageant. As he left through the door her eyes widened in a panic, she rushed over throwing the door back open and sticking her head out into the hall shouting, "And Klaus! Be careful with it!"

A chuckle in response was all she heard before the elevator dinged and the doors slid closed.

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Caroline sat on the end of the bed with one leg folded to help support her guitar as she checked its tuning. She flicked her eyes up at the excited girls waiting for her to begin, "So what do you want to hear?"

The twins looked at each other in question before grinning. They looked back at their Mother with radiant smiles as they both said, "Never grow up!"

Caroline bit her lip with a blush before she gave a single nod of her head; closing her eyes she began to strum the cords of the Taylor Swift song.

And then the most beautiful sight and sound Klaus had ever seen or heard happened right before his very eyes, knocking the breath straight out of his lungs in an awe filled gasp.

Caroline's blue eyes shimmered with emotion as her lilting and angelic voice filled the room. He was utterly enthralled. The moment became even sweeter and touching as the twin's tiny voices joined hers with the chorus.

Klaus never blinked the entire time as Caroline continued on with the song even after the girls had fallen asleep. His fingers itched to immortalize these precious moments in his sketchbook. It took him a few moments to take notice that Caroline had stopped playing and was now kissing their cherub cheeks after placing her guitar back in its case. Her cheeks were filled with what he assumed to be an embarrassed blush. That would just not do.

He followed her out of the bedroom and after she softly closed the door behind them he stopped her by touching her arm. He didn't bother holding back his pure awe at her talent as he spoke, "That was the most beautiful thing I have ever heard. You have the voice of an angel Caroline."

She brushed her hair back from her face and laughed timidly, "Thanks."

"I mean it Caroline; I will carry that moment with me always." Klaus told her softly.

Caroline smiled back at him, getting lost in his eyes before shaking herself out of the daze, "Well, I don't know about you but I could really go for some blood about now."

Klaus smirked, use to her ways of deflection, "Well, it is a good thing I grabbed some blood bags from the deep freezer in my basement then isn't it?"

"You are like the perfect travel companion ever!" She quickly raised her index finger at him, "Don't! Not a word! You'll ruin it!"

Klaus chuckled as he raised his hands in surrender, "I was only going to ask if you'd care to take our blood out on the terrace?"

Caroline narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, "Uh-huh, sure you were." Relaxing her face with a giggle and a shake of her head, "That sounds nice though regardless."

Within a few minutes the two stood on the terrace sipping their glasses of blood. Klaus took notice of Caroline's introspective daze, nudging her with his shoulder he asked her softly, "Penny for your thoughts Love?"

"It's just weird, you know? Here are these two tiny little people, people I've never met and somehow I just…" She trailed off with a sigh, her forehead furrowed in confusion.

"You love them." Klaus finished for her softly.

Caroline turned her head looking at him in utter fear, "How is that even possible? I didn't even know they existed until today. Heck, they don't really even exist yet! And you saw their memories; I'm not even their real Mother. I carried them, I gave birth to them but they're not really mine. How can I lo…" Her blue eyes filled with tears as her throat clogged and closed up before she was able to say it.

Klaus took her glass from her hand having to pry her stiff fingers off the glass, setting both his and hers to the table behind him he turn back to face her brushing a stray tear off her cheek then cupping it fully with the palm of his hand, "You can say it Caroline."

A whimper escaped her throat as she pressed her lips together shaking her head.

Klaus sighed with a tender smile, whispering to her, "Say it Caroline. It is not a crime to love what you cannot explain." The words sat in the air between them, neither knowing where they had heard them before but both feeling a deeply rooted connection to them.

Caroline inhaled a shaky breath, whispering as she exhaled, "I love them." Once it was out she couldn't hold back her tears any longer, "I love them so much. How am I supposed to let them go now? How am I supposed to go through these next few years without them?"

"Oh Sweetheart." Klaus sighed before pulling a sobbing Caroline into his arms, shushing her softly as he ran his hand over the back of her soft hair while she clung to him like a lifeline. Through her sobs and tears he began to make out her words of, I can't and I'm sorry. He pulled back from her a few inches, taking her face in his hands, "Hey, hey, Caroline look at me." Her tear-filled bloodshot eyes gazed up at him sending a knife straight through his heart at the sight of her anguish, "I don't know if this will help but I found something in a grimoire about time travel spells."

Caroline's eyes lit up with hope, "Can they stay?"

It nearly slayed him to have to take that hope from her, "No Love, they can't." As her face fell and her lip trembled once more he rushed to continue, "But there is a trick to these types of spells. Time travel is a fickle thing, I won't bore you with the details, but changing the future can be detrimental, cause and effect and all that nonsense. So there is a clause built within the time travel spells. Once the girls leave we will not remember them being here at all."

Caroline gasped, "So I won't remember spending this time with them at all? Ever?"

Klaus could see how much this disappointed her, and it was with great pleasure that he was able to offer her this small gift, "I wouldn't say _ever_ Caroline."

"What do you mean?" She asked with her head cocked adorably to the side, filling him with relief that her voice was clearing to her normal state.

Klaus grinned at her, "Magic cannot change time per say, but all the memories are still hidden within a person's mind. All it takes is that person to find the loophole and…"

"And then get those memories back!" Caroline's smile was as bright as the sun that had long ago set beyond the horizon. She threw her arms around his neck and laughed with glee.

Klaus closed his eyes and held her tightly, enjoying the moment of having his arms filled with her, her scent surrounding him in a comforting peace he longed to hold in his life for all time.

Caroline composed herself and gently untangled herself from his arms. With a small smile she tucked her hair behind her ear and scooped up her glass once again. "Thanks Klaus."

"Not a problem Caroline." He bashfully turned to pick his own drink up, looking back at her in surprise at her next question.

"If I get my memories back, in the future I mean, would you," She cleared her throat nervously, "I mean do you want them back too?"

Klaus recovered from his surprise at her anxious rambling and placed his hand delicately on her arm, gazing at her with nothing but heartfelt honesty pouring out of his glistening eyes, "More than anything Caroline. If you find a way, I want these memories back more than anything."

Caroline offered him her stunning smile, knocking the breath right out of his lungs, before turning to look out at the scenery around them once more.

Klaus knew if there was ever a time to tell her the truth it was now or never. If he failed to tell her now, after all they had been through, she would only discover it all later and he could not chance losing her for good. At least telling her now offered him the chance to earn her back in his life later.

Klaus downed the last of his blood, wishing he had a glass of strong scotch for what was about to come. With a nervous swipe of his tongue across his lips he spoke, "In the regards of honesty, there is something I should…I need to tell you."

Caroline turned to him with a mock gasp of surprise though she failed to keep her laughter from her voice, "You're not a virgin!"

Klaus chuckled as she broke the tension within him momentarily, "I'm afraid that ship has long ago set sail."

As his laughing mood vanished from him to be replaced with a look of pure anxiousness, Caroline turned to face him fully giving him a small smile, "You can tell me Klaus. You've been so amazing to me and the girls. Whatever it is, I'm not running, you can tell me."

Klaus prayed to every God that he doubted their existence that what she told him would hold true once he was finished. Then he opened his mouth, the whole story of New Orleans, Hayley and the baby spilling out with barely a breath taken in-between.

For her part Caroline stood in silence, taking in all the information he was throwing her way. A part of her realizing that from the way he spoke, he had not talked to a single person about his real doubts, his real fears about all this. What he needed was a true friend, someone he could trust with all this, someone who would stand beside him and not walk away or betray him. Someone who would not allow their jealousy to get in the way of truly being there for him the way no one had ever done for him before. No motives, no secrets, nothing to gain from him, just a shoulder to lean on, a person to rely on, someone to understand and not see him as weak for his fears.

Klaus stood stock still once it was all out there, a part of him couldn't believe the amount of information he had thrown at her. His darkest fears of the whole situation just came spilling out of him as he stared into her glistening soulful blue eyes. She gave him a strength he never knew he had; the ability to even speak of his weaknesses was something in his long life he had never fully grasped. Hell, he had pushed them away with all his might, locking them up as tight as a tomb deep within himself.

Until Caroline.

Caroline who stood in front of him now just as silent as his tomb once was before he opened the door, gladly giving her the only key.

"So are you and Hayley like, together?" Caroline winced, ashamed that after all he had told her that was the first thing she had asked; though his rapid response helped to quickly quell her anxiety.

"No! That girl was nothing but a mistake from the start. If I had it my way she would be gone the moment the baby leaves her womb."

Caroline narrowed her eyes at him, "She's the Mother of your child Klaus."

Klaus scoffed, "Not by choice I can assure you."

"Ok fine, I get it. No one really likes Hayley anyways." Caroline handed that to him with a roll of her eyes.

Klaus chuckled humorously, "Try telling Elijah that."

"Regardless, she _is_ the Mother of your child whether you like it or not. You should at least treat her with respect." Caroline groaned, "God! You have me defending _Hayley_ of all people, doesn't that show you something?"

"That you are a bloody saint?"

She shook her finger in his face, "Don't you get snarky with me Mister."

He raised his eyebrows, a smile playing on his lips making it difficult for her not to laugh.

"Stop it now!" She giggled before sighing and telling him seriously, "Think of how you are treating her, how little you are helping her. Now think about if Alaric treated _me_ that way." His eyes flashed yellow and a low growl escaped his lips making her nod her head, "Uh-huh, see? Not too pleasant to think about when the shoe is on the other foot is it?"

Klaus clenched his jaw in irritation before a smug smirk grew on his lips, "Well it's neither here nor there Love, considering neither of us will remember any of this for quite some time, well after the events come to pass."

"But you will remember at some point." She said with her own smug grin, knowing she had him there, she held her hands up warning him off of whatever rebuttal he was ready to say, "Regardless whether it's a moot point or not, we will both remember someday. And when that someday comes, you should really start accepting that you need to treat the people in your life better, whether you want them there or not. I've seen the way you treat people you care about Klaus, you need to let them in. Don't be so afraid of letting people see this other side of you," She paused to smile tenderly at him, "You show it to me all the time so why not the ones who have been in your life way longer than me? And as far as Hayley goes," The slight growl in her tone was not lost on either of them, "Look, I was raised with two parents that couldn't stand each other and it only got worse when they split. The best advice I can give you is this, whatever you say or do to your child's Mother, your child will feel that it is their fault. So no matter what Hayley does, no matter what she says, _you_ be the bigger person. Show your child that they are what matters most to you by giving Hayley the respect she deserves as their Mother."

Klaus was lost in the words of her impassioned speech, in all the different emotions that flitted across her face. How one so young could see things so much more clearly than he with a depth that even after all his years he could not fathom amazed him and left him speechless.

Caroline cleared her throat nervously at his silence, "Yeah, well anyways, maybe I went too far there."

Klaus reached forward, snatching her hand in his, "No Caroline, you didn't. I'll agree and work on these things when that someday comes," He left his thought hanging there in the open as he gathered his courage, "If you are there to help me."

Caroline's blue eyes widened as her face fell into what looked to be a glimmer of pain and indecision, "Klaus. You promised."

Klaus pulled her in closer to him as she made to pull away, "Yes, I promised but just tell me you'll think it over. It looks as through by the age of your daughters that it is all a few years off yet. That gives you plenty of time to decide Love."

"But from what the girls showed me I _did_ go to you and you weren't there. How do you know you didn't just move on? How do you know that you didn't just forget all about me?" Caroline's tone was argumentative, yet her eyes expressed every doubt, every fear that she held within her.

Klaus's voice became rough with the emotion behind what he began to tell her, "You want to know how I know that I would _never_ forget about you? How I could never _move on_?" His eyes flash yellow for a moment, only attesting to the intensity in which he meant what he was about to say and how difficult it was for someone like him to even contemplate speaking it all out loud.

"I have lived for over a thousand years Caroline. A thousand years to think and plot. A thousand years to bleed and to fight, whether against others or myself, to live. In those thousand years a million things happened to me and around me, but very few ever touched me as deeply as every single moment I have spent in your presence has."

Klaus smiled tenderly at her gasp, brushing her hair behind her ear then running his fingers down to their soft ends, "I carry your smile, your charm and beauty, your sharp tongue and smart mouth that takes no prisoners with me where ever I go. I move my feet and count my steps throughout New Orleans with you in every thought and every breath I take. I am trying to be a better man, not only to be deserving of you but more importantly for _myself_." Klaus huffed an awed laugh, " _You_ with your mere fraction of time on this Earth were the one to teach me the importance of this. That I have to want it for myself before I could ever give it to you."

Klaus took step closer to her, his chest brushing hers with every ragged breath they both took, "I've wanted you from the moment I saw you and I've only wanted you more as time passed by. I will want you forever Caroline. _Never_ doubt that. Where that hummingbird made me think of being human for a single second, you make me want to live every day, to _truly_ live." Klaus scoffed, "You think that I'm attempting to secure New Orleans for only my family? The power? My child? I am doing this for you as well Caroline."

Klaus's glistening eyes stared into hers as tear tracked down her face. He cupped the side of her face, an impassioned whisper falling from his lips, "How about a new promise Caroline? I will walk away, give you the time you need and deserve to truly come into your own, if you promise me that you will never again doubt my feeling for you?" Klaus gulped down past the lump in his throat, "But if I may ask for one small thing in return."

"What Klaus?"

He had to mute his groan at the husky whimper in her voice as she all but praised his name.

"Do not come to me to restore my memories until you are ready for me, ready to give me a real chance. I _need_ you to be sure that you are completely willing to give _us_ a chance before that someday comes." He gave her a soft smile, "However long it takes."

Her breath was caught in her lungs, her heart pounded like a drum in her chest. No one ever looked at her the way Klaus did. No one ever thought of her, put her needs first, the way Klaus did every single time. She knew what a huge deal that was for him, just as she knew how much it took for him to be this honest with her. She wanted to match his beautiful emotion filled speech, she wanted to offer him big wise heartfelt words but all she could get past her clogged throat was, "I promise. However long it takes."

Little did she know those small words meant more to him than any other speech she could have prepared.

She mimicked his blinding smile as they moved in closer together, their lips crashing against each other, chasing tongues in a passion filled duel that left them both moaning and wanting more.

Her fingers dug into his hair, gripping tightly not wanting him to stop as his hands splayed across her back, clutching her against his body as if she would disappear.

Their kisses began to slow to a stop as the rested their foreheads against each other, their breaths sawing in and out as they came back down to Earth.

Their lust filled eyes locked and it was with regret that Caroline had to say with a whimper, "We can't, the girls."

Klaus smiled happily, the corners of his eyes crinkling, "I know Love. I can wait."

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The few days she was able to spend with the girls meant more to her than she could ever express. All the laughing and playing, the stories Klaus would tell them as they cuddled up in a fort made out of blankets. She would miss this so much, and by the look on Klaus's face, he felt the exactly the same. Caroline sucked in a deep shocked breath as she realized that these days spent with Klaus and the girls were what she always pictured a real family to be like.

And now it was over.

Her two sweet little girls were leaving to go back to their time and Klaus…her and Klaus would go back to that strange limbo of nothing but questioning whether their feelings truly existed or not. But it didn't matter what she wanted or didn't want to change, the moment she had been dreading was here, both girls had popped their heads up this morning saying it was time. So now here they stood back in the woods where it all began, with Caroline choking down tears as the girls smiled happily, ready to go home. To them they would be right back in their parent's arms, but to Klaus and Caroline this would all fade away into a forgotten memory.

Within an instant it was all over, like it never happened at all.

To Klaus and Caroline, and the rest of the world, time shifted backwards righting its wrongs and locking the memories of the past few days deep within a locked tomb.

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"Good." She simply stated before crashing her lips against his.

The shock of finally feeling her lips pressed against his own wore off within a second, he felt as if he was floating in a heavenly daze as her hand cupped his cheek and her glorious body pressed firmly into his own.

The heat that started as a simple spark grew to a blazing flame as they slowly pulled away from each other. Breathing heavily they smiled brightly at each other, his spoke of how he much wanted her along with his elation at the complete confidence at the fact that she wanted him just as much. A bubble of laughter made its way from her chest as their eyes spoke of their undeniable need for each other.

Seeing the approval in her eyes he pulled her into him crashing his lips to her soft wanting ones. Holding her close to him he was ready to flash them against the nearest surface, be it the ground, a rock or a tree, he cared not. He only wanted to be as close to her as physically possible.

And so he did and they were.

For years to come they would both remember this coupling as the most intense, the closest they had ever felt to another living soul. For years to come, every encounter with another would leave them feeling hollow compared to the way they felt in each other's arms. They would both long for the other in a way that was near crippling. But they were stronger than that, they would tell themselves as they shoved those feelings of being utterly lost without the other down deep into the tombs they had built for themselves. Both for good reasons and some for not, all the while thinking someday it might be different. Both holding on to the hope that maybe, however long it took, someday would come.

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The sun had set just over an hour ago the moon light shown on a frantically pacing Caroline, running her fingers through her hair, "Where are they Alaric!? We've looked everywhere!"

Alaric stopped her frantic pacing by taking ahold of her shoulders, his own worry clouding his ability to calm her down, "We'll find them Caroline."

Her lower lip trembled as tears filled her eyes for what seemed to be the hundredth time since the girls disappeared right before their eyes, "But how? We don't even know what happened. Bonnie can't find them with a location spell and Stefan is checking the Armory as he looks for Damon, I just…what if something happened and we never see them again?"

Alaric pulled her tightly into his arms battling his own tears as she voiced his worst fear.

A sudden rush of magic was felt around them at the same moment two little voices echoed, "Mommy! Daddy!"

Caroline and Alaric pulled away from each other with surprised relieved laughter, "Lizzie! Josie!"

Both parents fell to the ground as the four of them become a massive tangle of arms and legs and laughter. Alaric disentangled himself from the pile with a huge smile as the three girls giggled, "So what happened girls? Where did you go?"

Both girls looked up to their Mother each placing a hand on a side of her face. Images played behind Caroline's eyelids causing her to gasp at what they were showing her. A few small tears leaked from her eyes at everything she saw. The woods, shopping, the hotel, the fort they constructed out of all the blankets and pillows they demanded from housekeeping. Klaus. Then the memories that the girl didn't see came rushing back to her.

"Oh my God." Caroline whispered on a shaky exhale with large rounded eyes.

The girls smiled up at her happily as they seem her remember, "Can we go find him now Mommy?" Josie asked her excitedly.

"Yeah Mommy can we? Please?" Lizzie added in with an adorable pouting tone.

"Caroline? What are they talking about? Find who?" Alaric asked as he knelt down next to her concerned over her tears at whatever the girls had shown her.

Her mouth floundered open and closed, her head shaking back and forth not knowing where to begin, how to even start. She attempted to gather her thoughts as she stood and brushed the dirt from her pants.

"Okay, well. God I don't even know where to begin." Caroline told Alaric with wide imploring eyes.

"Just start at the beginning." He replied gently.

"Ok, so I was in the woods with…"

"Caroline!"

Caroline and Alaric spun as a frantic Stefan came out of the Armory.

Breathing heavily Stefan flashed up to her, "I need to talk to you." He looked over her shoulder to see the twins sitting on the ground whispering with their heads close together, a relieved grin covered his face for a second at the sight, "You found them, that's great!" His serious brooding eyes turned back to Caroline as he began pulling her away, "I really have to talk to you; it will only take a minute."

Caroline reluctantly allowed Stefan to pull her away from her family; she stood listening as he explained what happened inside the Armory with half an ear. The rest of her stayed focused on Alaric and their daughters, her eyes widened fractionally as she watched them placed their tiny little hands on his cheeks, his eyes fluttering and she knew the girls were giving him the memories they had of their days with Klaus and her in the past. She bit her lips in indecision as she thought over the time they had all spent together and the information she had now. Her thoughts were interrupted by Stefan making her attention jerk back to him.

"So, do you think you could help me?" His eyes were so hopeful and a small part of her hated what she was about to say and do since it would only take that hope away and hurt him.

Slowly she shook her head telling him gently, "I can't Stefan I'm sorry. My girls need me right now and there's…there's something I have to do."

"Are you sure?" Stefan asked her with a little disappointment.

"I'm sorry Stef."

Stefan sighed with a nod of his head, pulling her in for a quick hug before stepping back, "Alright, but if you change your mind…"

"I don't think I will, but you will be the first to know."

And then he was gone.

Caroline couldn't help but notice as she slowly walked over to her family that the hurt she had expected to see in Stefan's eyes looked a lot more like relief.

"Mommy we showed Daddy what we did when we were away!" Lizzie smiled happily as Caroline stopped next to them.

"Did you now?" Caroline said with a smirk before turning with a nervous grin to Alaric, "And what does Daddy think?"

"Daddy thinks that it was one hell," He cleared his throat as the girls giggled, " _heck_ of an adventure." He noticed Caroline shifting on her feet as she waited for him to say more. He sighed in defeat, "But it looks like Klaus took really good care of all of you."

Caroline smiled, "He did." She bit her lower lip as her eyes looked off into the distance.

"I know that look in your eyes Caroline."

She licked her lips before rushing out, "I have to find him Alaric. Something isn't right. Klaus wouldn't just disappear off the face of the Earth for _three years._ "

"So you want to help him." He nodded his head after she did then asked her hesitantly, "And what about his memories?"

"I don't know?"

Alaric looked down to the girls before pulling Caroline aside whispering to her, "Look, if it's what you want then I guess I can _try_ to understand. I mean I can't deny what they girls showed me. Obviously there is a side to him that the rest of us never seen. You trusted him enough to be with our daughters and I trust _you_. So whatever you decide I will learn to live with."

Caroline paced back and forth, her eyes flicking over to the girls' expectant faces as her thoughts crashed through her head. Klaus's voice, his impassionate speech was screaming loudly through her ears.

She stopped.

She froze.

A blinding smile lit her face as she came to a decision before nodding her head firmly, "I'm going to find him."

The girls' shouts of, "Yippee." made both their parents giggle.

Alaric quieted his laughter, looking to Caroline with a grin, "Alright so when do we leave?"

"We?" Caroline asked in shock.

"Please! You didn't really think I'd let you go alone now did you?"

"But…but…what about the girls?" Caroline stuttered.

"We will just have to find a place that is out of the way while you go off and do your digging. Besides," Alaric added with a shrug, "You are all _my_ girls and, Original Hybrid or not, he needs to understand that if he hurts you in anyway I'll be the one coming after him."

Caroline threw her head back in riotous laughter as they ushered the girls to the car, "Can you just promise me something?" He nodded his head as they looked at each other from over the roof of the car, "If I am not there for that conversation, _please_ record it!"

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* * *

Yes, there will be a part two coming along soon!


	9. Covered in Glitter

Klaroline AU Week Day Three: Because Magic!

Covered in Glitter. - NSFW

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ASHLEIGH!

This one's for you girl!

Your prompt to me was: _She showed up at his door, soaking wet, bruised, and covered in glitter._

I hope this lives up to you expectations and I hope you have an amazing day!

None of the nonsense in New Orleans happened, just Klaus ruling like the King he is. And let's pretend Caroline decided to go to a school far away from everyone but Bonnie and made some new friends along the way!

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Klaus was calmly contemplating the blank canvas in front of him, casually sipping the scotch from the crystal tumbler he held in his hand as he relished the quiet peaceful silence that came along with an empty house. Colors began to swirl and shapes began taking form within his mind as the image of what he would paint on that starch white canvas came together like a dance he was well attuned with.

A sudden pounding on his front door caused the image to shatter, right along with the tumbler in his hand as he clenched his fist and jaw in frustration. Wiping his hands on the towel lay on the table next to his easel, he grumbled on his way down the stairs to the front door.

Vowing to rip the perpetrators hands off so they can never make such a loud blasted noise again, Klaus yanked the door open only to freeze at who lays behind it.

"Caroline?"

His widened shocked eyes with his mouth hanging open would have been comical to her if it wasn't for the night she had been having. Huffing she pulled her soaking wet jacket closer to her body, "Are you going to let me in or what?"

Shaking out of his stupor Klaus took a step back allowing her entrance into his home before turning away from her to close the door and take a moment to steel his nerves. He had no idea just why she was here and while he hoped it would be for him, something told him that was not the case. Turning back around to face her, the quip he had ready on the tip of his tongue died as he took her in.

She was soaking wet from head to toe, the dark blue dye from her now useless dress was running down her legs onto her bare feet and the floor underneath her. Vaguely he thought of how upset Elijah would be with the dark blue stains on the light wooden floorboards. He brushed the stray thought away as he discovered with a closer inspection, her entire form was covered in…was that glitter?

His humorous musings were cut short, a hard look crossing over his eyes, when he noticed the bruises covering her forearms where her sleeves were pushed up, as well as all over her legs. He contemplated the marks with a critical eye realizing that those bruises had to be fresh, considering her vampire healing and all, and they suspiciously resembled marks caused by someone's hands gripping her tightly.

"What happened?"

The growl in his voice made Caroline roll her eyes, like he had any room to be upset! It was her that had the night from hell!

While he had been visibly checking her out she did her own inspect of his person. What? It had been nearly five years since she had seen him! And the last time they were both naked and writhing on the forest floor. So sue her! She knew she would eventually come to seek him out, but this was so not what she had in mind! She launched into her explanation of what had happened to her to avoid thinking any further down that path.

"So since it was my last year of college some of the girls and I decided to celebrate by taking a Spring Break style trip around Florida. It just figures I had to cut it so short when it just started." She grumbled before waving her hand, "So anyways, we were in Tampa hitting up the nightlife a little early when this guy just wouldn't leave me alone! I mean I know I'm hot and all but really?" She waved her hands around looking at him as if he would completely understand.

Klaus pushes his hands into his pockets with a firm but mocking nod, "Of course Love, no one likes unwanted attention."

Caroline's face lit up completely missing his mocking tone, "Exactly! Thank you! So anyway I kept trying to get the sleaze to leave me alone but everywhere I turned there he was! I finally very politely told him to back off."

Klaus raised an eyebrow at her and she huffed in response.

"Okay fine, maybe I wasn't so polite about it but not everyone's stalking abilities can be considered cute."

A dimple filled smile cut across his face, "Unlike mine you mean?"

Her eyes widened fractionally when she realized her slip up, clearing her throat she waved her hand, "We are getting off topic."

Klaus let the slip slide, his humor falling away once more as he watched a few of her bruise begin to fade, "Please Love, carry on."

"Thank you." She sternly nodded her head before diving headlong into a rapid explanation of her night, "So after my not so nice way of telling he had no chance in hell I didn't see him for a while, that is until I went out to the back of the bar to wait for the other girls to get their drinks. Then there he was! He started muttering some weird Latin and then it hit me! He was a freaking warlock! After he muttered his little spell I was hit so hard with a blast of magic that I flew across the back patio and broke a table. When I was trying to get all the damn pieces off me I heard him say "Have fun knocking them off you now" but when I got up he was gone."

"Do you remember what he said?" Klaus asked demandingly.

"No and I never minded it at the time." Klaus groaned with his eyes pointed at the ceiling causing her to huff and stomp her foot, "What? I was _trying_ to have a good time! Not worry about some nerdy little warlock's horrible attempts to come onto me." Caroline said indignantly before she bit her lip in hesitation, "But that's when things got weird."

Klaus took a step closer to her, her scent hitting him like a ton of bricks and bring to the surface the lust he fought down whenever he was in her presence. He tried to shake such wandering thoughts from his mind finding it much harder to do than normal but chalked it up to not seeing her since their delicious romp in the woods. Clearing his throat, hoping to mask the ever present lust from his voice, "What happened Caroline?"

Caroline held back the shiver at the seductive way he said her name choosing to answer his spoken question and not the one that blazed from his eyes, "People started coming onto me like crazy. Even the girls I was with! I mean seriously! One minute we are all laughing and the next all three are trying and fighting each other to get their hands on me! It didn't take me long to figure out that that stupid warlock put some kind of a spell on me. So I took off, hoping to get back to my hotel before anything else happened but of course," She rolled her eyes as she paced barefoot across the foyer floor, "everyone I came across kept trying to get a hold of me."

Klaus tried not to chuckle, "So then what happened Love, how did you end up here?"

"I'm getting to that." She huffed at his impatience, "I flashed away from the crowd and ended up at the harbor, trying to figure out what to do next then it hit me! I was just a body of water away from you and since you are the self-proclaimed King of New Orleans" She scoffed scathingly, "I figured you could help me. So I stole a boat, only to find that halfway here it ran out of gas so I had to swim the rest of the way. I mean who leaves their boat out of gas anyways?"

"You swam across the Gulf of Mexico?" Klaus asked stunned at this information.

"Duh! What was I supposed to do? Wait for a boat full of people to come pawing at me?" She threw her hands out as if it was the only logical thing she could have done. "Anyways, when I came up on shore I ended up in a rather seedy part of town and got accosted by a group of strippers." She titled her head adorably at him in outrage, "Do you have any idea how much damn glitter both the female and _male_ strippers wear?!"

Klaus could no longer hold back his laughter as he waved a hand in her direction, "About as much as you seem to be wearing I would presume."

Her eyes narrowed as she folded her arms across her still dripping chest, "It's not funny."

Klaus clamped his lips together and with a nod of his head and replied, trying to contain his laughter, "Of course not Caroline."

"Ugh!" Caroline groaned as she stomped her foot making a wet sound as she hit a small puddle, "Could you just give me some dry clothes and point me in the direction of a shower and then call a damn witch to break this stupid spell already?"

"Of course. My apologies Caroline." He said as he still was trying to fight down his laughter, "Come, I'll show you to where you can get cleaned up and grab some of Rebekah's clothing along the way."

"Somehow I don't think your sister will like me borrowing her clothes." She said skeptically.

A wide grin grew over his face that weirdly reminded her of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland as they walked up the staircase, "Well, you can always wear something of mine; I sure wouldn't mind my scent being all over you."

Caroline shivered at the visible lust that burned in his eyes. When they hit the top of the stairs she looked at him, telling him in a deadpan tone, "Rebekah's clothes will do just fine."

He gave her a nod and pointed her in the right direction, telling her he would have someone here shortly to fix this issue for her.

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.

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Klaus tried hard to choke down the groan wanting to bubble out of him at the sounds of Caroline in the shower, the thoughts of her in the shower. Caroline naked and wet in shower. Caroline naked, wet and running her hands over her delectable smooth naked skin that he ached to be touching.

He grimaced; he now understood why it was so hard for him to pull back the proverbial reins on his lust and his pure need of her. That damn spell was so strong it even affected him. He was never so thankful for the phone ringing in his hand.

"She had better be on her way." He stated without a greeting to the caller.

"She is but she insisted that Marcel comes along with her."

He smirked at the fearful shake in Josh's voice, under any other circumstance he would have threatened until he got his way but in this case he cared not for who followed the irritating witch so long as she showed up.

"Fine. They had better be here within the hour or it will be your head." He snapped before hanging up his phone.

While he would love nothing more than to stretch this out for as long as possible in order to keep Caroline here, this was not exactly how he wanted to spend time with her. Well that was not entirely true was it? He grinned to himself. He would be more than happy, elated even, to spend as much time as he possibly could pulling those provocative little noises out of her that she made when he…

The sound of the shower cutting off snapped him from his erotic thoughts. Klaus groaned deeply as he was forced to adjust his heavily throbbing shaft in his pants. The natural affect she had on him added in with this lust hex cast on her was making his rigorous control fail him drastically. He needed this hex broken so that he could focus his energy on enticing her to stay a while longer instead of spending his energy fighting down his raging desire for her.

Caroline bounced down the stairs feeling better after the hot shower; she smiled at Klaus who stood off to the side of the fireplace in the parlor, continuing past him to pour herself a much needed drink from his vast liquor collection.

Klaus felt his breath catch as her bright smile met him as she bounced into the room. As she sailed past him completely unaware of the struggle he was having, he couldn't keep his eyes away from the other bouncy parts of her. It was quite obvious to him that, while he would never say so to his sister, Caroline was smaller in certain areas and more voluptuous in others. The dark blue tank top she wore fit snuggly around her hourglass figure. He took a quick drink to mask the groan that begged to leave him as her well-endowed cleavage nearly spilled over the low-cut neckline. He leered on with heavy breath as she bent slightly across the table to reach for a bottle of scotch set in the back. The formfitting yoga pants she had chosen cupped her bottom so deliciously that he ached to his core for it to be his hands instead. Her golden hair was swept up in a messy bun leaving her long milky neck open, just begging for his lips, teeth and tongue to worship.

Unaware of the show she was unintentionally putting on for Klaus, Caroline began speaking in relief as she made herself a drink, "Seriously Klaus, thanks for helping me. You have no idea how frustrating this whole night has been. I mean yeah I like attention as much as the next person but seriously! All those people grabbing me!" She chuckled as she placed to top back in the glass container. Picking her drink up she turned to face him leaning against the table, "And you wouldn't believe the looks…people were… giving me." She trailed off as she took in Klaus's stance, the ridge set of his entire body, the near shaking of his hand clutching the tumbler he held. But what made her stop and catch her breath was the yellow hue of his eyes with their full blown pupils radiating nothing but lust. Eyes that began slowly tracking the downward trail of the water droplet she felt moving down her neck and into her cleavage.

"Oh no." She breathed out, "Not you too."

Her heart rate spiked as he slowly placed his tumbler on the mantle without taking his eyes off her. Her breath started racing as he stalked to her as if she was his prey with a salacious smirk curving his lips.

"No, not me _too_ Caroline."

The way he spoke her name sent shivers down her spine, reminding her of just how he had moaned it during their tryst in the woods all those years ago. She licked her lips as she moved slowly to set her glass down, "Klaus you're not thinking straight right now."

Klaus ignored her hands that were up in attempts to ward him off and wrapped his arms around her. With one around her back and the other _finally_ cupping her delectable backside he yanked her into his body, his smirk widening as his hard shaft brushed against her center pulling a low moan from her and causing her eyes to flutter shut.

He leaned down running his nose along her jawline taking in her mouthwatering scent as he reached her ear whispering huskily, " _Always_ me _Caroline."_

Caroline placed a hand on his chest and the other on his shoulder, fighting with herself to push him away instead of drawing him in closer. That is until his wonderful mouth began all but worshiping her neck.

Her hand on his shoulder moved with a will of its own to the back of his head, her fingers gripping tightly into his hair pulling a yearning moan from him as he began kissing and nipping at her skin even more while he pressed his hips against her, rolling them back and forth.

As his hips rolled, his rigid shaft made continuous passes over her clit making her wetter by the second bringing a whimper from her chest, "Klaus."

The sound was music to his starving ears and only one of the many he aimed to pull from her this night and well into the morning.

She began meeting the roll of his hips with thrusts of her own, "Yes Love. Gods yes." He pulled his hand away from her backside placing it with a firm grip on her hip as he bent her backwards over the table sending bottles crashing to the floor with loud shattering that they all but ignored.

Her arms flew around him, one up to hold his head in place as his lips crashed to hers the other around his back gripping his shirt so hard it ripped a whole in the back.

Their bodies grinded together as their lips, teeth and tongues clashed and danced. Klaus slid a hand up her luscious curves until he reached her breast, both moaning into the kiss as her nipple hardened beneath his palm.

Pulling back quickly Klaus yanked her top down exposing her rose tipped breasts to the breeze of the room. In an instant he ducked down licking around her nipple making her quiver, her leg sliding up his side to his hip, before he latched on to it fully, sucking harshly while flicking his tongue over it repeatedly.

Caroline gripped the back of his head as she threw her own back with a loud pleasure filled, "Fuck Klaus!" leaving her parted lips.

Their lower bodies continued thrusting and grinding together, their hearts pounding so heavily they swore they could hear them echo through the house.

That is, until the pounding was accompanied by an irritated female voice.

"Klaus! You all but demanded my presence here. If you don't open this door we're leaving and I won't be coming back!"

"Davina don't piss him off any more than he already is!" A timid shaky voice whispered to her and Klaus knew could only be Josh.

Klaus snapped out of his lust filled haze, looking up at Caroline sheepishly as he stepped away from her trying hard not to watch as she cupped her own breasts to place them back within the confines of her shirt. "I'm sorry Caroline," He whispered quietly so the others would not hear, "It seems even the Original Hybrid, who is no stranger to your lovely charms, can even fall victim to the hex."

Her cheeks were filled with a blush as she stood straight, "It's fine." She cleared her throat as her voice crack with the lust still flowing through her. She watched as his eyes heated once more and quickly turned from him after fixing her appearance. Kneeling down she began brushing the broken glass behind the table in attempts to hide the evidence of their interlude and to distract herself from the thoughts of continuing where they left off. She glanced back over her shoulder to find his heated gaze still on her, "But maybe to play it on the safe side you should go answer the door so I can get this stupid hex off me."

Klaus cringed as he realized he was staring at her like she something he wanted to devour, not that it was untrue by any means. He frequently recalled the unique flavor of her blood and the taste of her essence when she had come undone on his tongue when he was alone at night. He only hoped that this lapse in judgment wouldn't send her running for the hills once the hex was removed. Though, he did take notice of the fact that she wasn't so opposed to their erotic encounter which gave him a small spark of hope.

With a nod of his head he turned and walking out of the room, letting his want for her cool as the hope of talking her into staying took bloom within his chest.

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.

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Klaus stood with his arms crossed staring broodingly as Davina and Caroline flipped through the pages of the book the young witch had brought along with her as they searched for the hex placed on Caroline. He caught sight of Marcel and Josh as they tried to sneak back into the room, attempting to get closer to Caroline.

His eyes flashed yellow as his fangs dropped, growling at them menacingly, "If you don't wish to suffer from hallucinations as you writhe in pain I suggest you turn you hides back around and cower in the kitchen where I told you to stay." His threat was enough for them to turn and hightail it back to the kitchen after casting longing glances at Caroline.

The two had all but accosted her once they entered the room bringing such a possessive rage out of him that Klaus hadn't even realized he had snapped their necks until two female screeches met his ears. Klaus had only huffed, telling them they were lucky he went for the throat instead of their hearts. Of course that landed him on the ground with a witchy migraine that was accompanied by Caroline's indignant yell of, "Seriously Klaus?!" It was pure luck that the young witch was not affect by the hex, he would have killed her permanently if she so much as touched Caroline in any way other than to help her.

So there he stood, regulated by the very woman he was trying to help, to the other side of the room.

"Hey! I think this is it!" Caroline spoke with excited relief as she pointed out the wording in the book to Davina.

Davina leaned over the book with her finger tracing the words as she read them. Looking up at Caroline she giggled, "That's quite the hex that guy put on you."

"Yeah no kidding." Caroline grumbled, "So can you fix it?"

"You're in luck, it was a complicated spell, one that you'll be happy to know most likely left him pretty drained but it is one that is easy to remove." Davina couldn't stop the smile from growing on her face as the blonde vampire began jumping and clapping her hands in delight.

Originally Davina had planned on gaining whatever she could from Klaus for helping him but upon meeting Caroline with her bubbly personality and not to mention the fact that she could sweet talk the devil known as Klaus into calming down, she decided that she liked the girl enough to just do it without any strings. Though she did secretly hope Caroline would stick around for a while, it would be nice to have someone who had that much pull with Klaus around and possibly make a new friend as well.

Caroline realized she was jumping around like an excited cheerleader and it was only pulling Klaus's lustful eyes back to her bouncing breast. Regaining her composure she looked at Davina, "So will you do it? And what do you want in exchange?"

The witch shook her head, "I'll do it but I don't want anything."

Caroline looked at her skeptically, "Are you sure? I mean I know witches don't normally like to help vampires. I mean even my best friend Bonnie had some issues with it at one point or another."

"Wait, do you mean Bonnie as in Bennett?" Davina's eyes widened.

"Yeah why?" Caroline asked worried that she maybe shouldn't have brought up Bonnie. Lord knows Bonnie didn't need any more drama.

"I just never met a Bennett witch before. They're like super powerful."

Caroline grinned at the near hero worship she could see in the girl's eyes, "Well how about I talk to her and see if maybe she wants to come down here sometime. We can meet and have a girl's day!"

"Oh you don't have to…"

Caroline cut her off, "Please, it's no big deal. We would have fun and you two could talk about your witchy stuff. Bonnie doesn't really have any other witch friends so it would be a favor for the both of you."

Klaus grinned happily on the other side of the room as Davina removed the hex on Caroline. That hope that had begun to form in his chest grew even larger as he heard her making plans to bring the Bennett witch to New Orleans. Such plans involved her staying here or at the very least coming back. He knew there was not a chance Caroline would allow Bonnie to come here on her own and the young Davina would not be leaving New Orleans with her Regent status of the local coven. As he watched Caroline hug the witch thanking her profusely for her help he left to gather Marcel and Josh from the kitchen.

The group met at the door with both Marcel and Josh apologizing embarrassed over their actions towards Caroline, both swearing to her that they normally did not behave like such hormone driven animals while Josh timidly added in the fact that he was gay. Caroline handled it all like the Queen Klaus always knew she was, laughing it all off and enchanting them with her sunny demeanor.

The front door closed leaving the two of them standing in the foyer alone with their eyes drifting to each other and around the room before landing back on the other.

Klaus cleared his throat folding his hands behind his back as he asked her nervously, "So what now Love?"

Caroline eyed him speculatively for a moment, taking him in from head to toe. As she noticed his hopeful but nervous glances she closed her eyes and sighed, "Oh fuck it." before she launched herself into his arms smashing her lips to his.

Oh fuck it indeed, Klaus thought as he wrapped his arms around her and maneuvered them through his home. As they stumbled up the stairs Caroline turned, shoving him against the hall halfway up, pulling her upper body away from his to tug the tank top off over her head with a devious grin and a hungry glimmer in her eyes.

His eyes devoured the sight of her bare breasts swaying enticingly before him, a sight that he has drawn many times over again in a sketchbook he kept well hidden from prying eyes. He scooped her up with a low growl, spinning them around and crashed her back against the wall, her long toned legs wrapping instantly around him for support.

Klaus wasted no time in lowering his head while he pulled her upper body closer with the arm wrapped around the middle of her back. His lips took her puckered nipple into his mouth sucking harshly as he swirled his tongue around it, her body arching in response as she keened in pleasure.

Caroline let go of his hair that had been caught tightly in her grip to run her hands down his back, her eyes fluttering shut as Klaus switched to her other breast. Her hands fumbled blindly for the bottom of his shirt, tugging and pulling on it to pull it up bringing a long low moan from Klaus as her sharp nails raked across his skin on the way up.

Klaus tore himself away from her luscious breasts to assist her in tearing his shirt from his body, not carrying in the slightest that it fluttered in pieces to the stairs below them.

Her hands flew to the sides of his face, heated desire poured from their eyes before he surged forward crashing their lips back together, both groaning as their bare chests rubbed together. He held her body closer with one arm slung around her back, the other dipping lower to splay his hand wide across the cheeks of her backside.

Not wanting to stop tasting his mouth with her own, Caroline slid her arm around his neck gripping the back of his head to hold him close as he began blindly navigating up the stairs and down the hall to his bedroom. The brush of his straining cock against her hot center with every step he took drove her insane with lust and snapped the last of Klaus's restraint. The air moved quickly by them unnoticed as he flashed them the remaining distance to his room and threw her on his bed.

He took a single second to admire her flushed colored skin that trailed from her face on down to her heaving breasts but even that proved to be too much for Caroline as she snarled at him.

"Stop staring and get over here."

A devilish smirk grew over his face, "Gladly."

He pounced on her, smothering her giggles with his lips and turned her laughter into keening whines as they began tearing the remaining clothes from their bodies.

The foreplay that he prided himself on giving her during their time in the woods was all but nonexistent, both far too lost in their mutual desire and pure need for each other. Klaus silently vowed to himself that the next round, and he'd be damned if there wouldn't be more to come, he would spend hours covering every inch of her succulent skin with nothing but his lips and fingers as he took the time to relearn her entire body once more. But for now he hitched her legs into the crook of his arms, slamming his way into her soaking wet core.

Caroline nearly sobbed as he thrusted in and out of her with a speed that left her dizzy with pure ecstasy. Her hands clawed at the skin of his chest and arms, her nails leaving trails of blood in her wake as she quivered and thrashed beneath him. His growls and snarls echoed within her chest as his sweat trickled down off him, landing on her heaving breasts.

But it was still not enough.

Their bodies writhed together as they rolled across the bed in a fight for dominance. Caroline flipped him over, his back still bouncing on the bed as she turned away from him throwing her leg over his hips pinning him down with her hands on his knees. Tossing a lustful grin over her shoulder, she took his throbbing cock in her hand as she rose up on her knees before sliding down onto him to the hilt. Klaus's back arched, his feet pressed against the mattress, his hands flew to her hips as he groaned her name gruffly.

Caroline ran her hands up her sides, pausing to cup her breasts before crossing her arms behind her head, lifting up her hair as her body kept rising and falling over his, her inner walls holding him captive with every move she made.

Klaus glanced down to where their bodies were joined, groaning lowly at the glorious sight of her rounded backside and his cock smoothly gliding in and out of her hot core as she rode him.

The position she had him in gave him little room to move, to aid in their mutual pleasure. He quickly sat up, shifting his body to his knees behind her, his shaft never leaving the warmth of her core. Her back pressed tightly against his front, her legs spread wide on the outside of his thighs as her knees pressed into the mattress aiding her as she continued to move, his cock gliding in and out of her with ease.

Klaus moaned hoarsely as he began thrusting his hips upwards, pushing his throbbing cock deeper than before into her soaking core. His arm went around her front, clutching her to him as he drifted his other down to her core, softly rubbing her swollen clit with his fingers.

Caroline inhaled a shaky breath before rasping his name from between her lips. The pleasure was so intense she latched onto his arm as her other hand flew behind her to cup the side of his head.

Their bodies were covered in sweat, the sounds of their enjoyment at the erotic moment echoed throughout his room. His hot rasping breath ghosted over her neck as his head fell to her shoulder, ready to come but holding back as he worked to push her over the edge first.

He felt her body being to shake and quiver in his arms, her movements speeding up as she chased her climax. With a few more snaps of his hips she was coming beautifully in his arms, her inner walls clamping down on him tightly, milking his release with a guttural roar.

Their bodies fell in a tangle heap to the bed utterly and deliciously spent.

Caroline's eyelids felt heavy as she pushed her body back closer into his, humming lightly as his fingertips trailed gently over the skin of her stomach.

Klaus's eyes fell closed as he relaxed into her warmth; the scent of her hair filled his nostrils making him feel as if he was floating a warm sea of water. His mouth opened on its own accord, uttering quietly in the stillness surrounding them, "Stay."

Caroline hummed, patting him arm draped over her with her hand, "We'll see."

Klaus smiled deeply as he pulled her in even closer, melting his body to her luscious curves.

It wasn't a yes but it wasn't a no either.

He could work with that.

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Day Three is complete! See you again for Day Four ;)


	10. Amour à la mode

Klaroline AU Week. All Human Day Four.

A big thank you to Ashleigh and her birthday cupcakes and frosting for the inspiration. ;) Because really, Who needs cake for that! :)

Also a big huge hello and thank you to all the new favorites and followers! Thank you all for your love and support!

 **Amour à la mode**

 **NSFW**

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Caroline placed the last plastic tub of her baking supplies that she needed into her trunk of her car closing the trunk lid with a little more force than necessary. Her blue eyes glanced up with a proud beaming smile at the elegant sign of her bakery that read, _Amour à la mode_ , in beautiful bold swirling script. Then her eyes fell to the door.

Her grin fell to a scowl at the mocking words that taunted her in place of her beautiful cheery open sign, _Closed due to repairs_. She had added a handwritten letter, posting it directly above the horrid little words, apologizing for the inconvenience and to please call her in regards to any questions or orders.

Caroline took pride in owning one of the top bakeries in the area. She catered to all walks of life, whether it be a small child's birthday on up to a large corporate Gala, she took in each client no matter their station in life, treating them all as close personal friends. It's what kept them coming back for more and the extra referrals coming in the door. That and she made some of the best baked goods anyone had ever tasted, she even had a client call her after an event, raving about how her party had been such a success and how all her guests had praised her deserts as, little slices of heaven.

She had to hire two new staff members the following week.

But now a dark cloud sat over her head, her beloved bake shop was closed for a least the next week, maybe longer, as repairs were made to the kitchen.

She didn't want to point fingers and cast blame but she totally blamed Elena for this mess. Give Jeremy a chance she had asked, he will do great she said, he just needs someone to take him under his wing she had pleaded. _Yeah_ , Caroline scoffed to herself as she got into her car, he did _so_ great in his nightly clean up duties that he didn't lock the industrial sized dishwasher before he turned it on and locked up for the night. And _somehow,_ he pleaded that he had no idea how it had happened, the water never shut off causing the entire kitchen to be flooded with scolding hot water.

She came in this morning, skipping along merrily as she went over her do-to list for the day in her head, only to discover the entire kitchen a disaster area. By the time she managed to shut the water off she was soaked to the bone herself. The only good thing about that was the hot water heater couldn't keep up with the shear amount of water being used. She had bit back angry tears as she surveyed the damage. Water had soaked into the drywall; the heat of it before the tank had giving up caused the paint to begin to peal. She had rolled her eyes in frustration only to find that the ceiling needed to be replaced as well.

And don't even get her started on the humidity in the room! All that steaming hot water was not a friend to her hair or her baked goods. Thankfully she always liked to plan ahead and kept a few changes of clothing in her office since as a baker the odds were high that you would be covered in something by the end of the day, so she didn't have to make the extra trip home sopping wet before calling the contractor.

Caroline's childhood friend Matt owned and operated his own construction company, so she had placed the phone call into him as soon as she had changed. He sent a few guys over from his crew and put them to work right away giving her a discounted rate for the repairs. She was so thankful that she offered them free coffees and treats for everyday they were there, the place had to be shut down anyways and she didn't want the food in the case to go to waste.

The downside was she would have to close down shop for at least a week after the repairs were finished just to catch up on all the work needed to restock her cases. And if that wasn't bad enough she had a cake tasting with a newly engaged couple tomorrow evening.

When it came to cake tastings with a bride, Caroline prided herself on the massive amounts of options, making them all in tiny little petit fours size cakes, making a variety of each flavor combinations so there would be plenty for the bride and whoever came with her to try and come back to when they couldn't decide.

Which brought her to her next dilemma.

Klaus Mikaelson.

Rebekah had stopped by for her morning coffee and muffin before heading into work; seeing the disaster the bakery was in, she had taken it upon herself to call up her brother telling him all about Caroline's problems. Klaus had easily offered the use of his state of the art kitchen, which if you asked Caroline was a complete and utter waste since he rarely used it. But she wasn't about to complain, too much anyway, when she could take advantage of it saving her a lot of time and effort trying to balance all the prep-work, baking and decorating in her much smaller and less efficient kitchen at home.

Klaus owned an extremely successful and renowned Art and Antiques Gallery, selling a wide range of products from newly created artworks on down to the oldest tea cup known to man, with a little bit of eccentricities in between. It was where Caroline bought the majority of her décor for her bakery, no matter how much she hated him, the man had exquisite taste and a keen eye for art.

Okay, she rolled her eyes as her hands gripped the steering wheel tighter, maybe _hated_ was a strong word, maybe it was more along the line of dislikes him with a passion. Oh who is she kidding! She liked him with a burning passion that border-lined on obsession. But still, she hated him. She didn't use to feel all these crazy confusing emotions when it came to him; he was just one of her best frenemy's brother, plaining and simple. That is until Rebekah's 25th birthday party and what transpired between them almost five months ago now.

Caroline had broken up with Tyler after a long on again off again rocky relationship just days before Rebekah's big blow out at Kol's newly opened nightclub. She had hated having to show up to the party stag but, to all her friends' relief, she had. None of them had liked Tyler much anyways.

She had stood off to the side, downing shot after shot, as everyone she knew was having a blast dancing with someone. Well, almost everyone. She had turned to find Klaus, with a peculiar look on his face, standing next to her. Then suddenly she was scooped up and manhandled out onto the dancefloor.

She had never in her life had so much fun with a man before. They drank way too much, laughed and danced together for most of the evening. Close to midnight Caroline had laughingly begged for a break to which Klaus happily agreed wanting to step outside for a smoke anyways. She had no idea how it had happened, one minute he was pulling his pack of cigarettes out of his pocket, with her teasing him that the reason he could never hold a relationship for long was because his mouth always tasted of an ashtray and no girl wanted to make out with an ashtray. Then the next thing she knew his unlit cigarette was thrown to the ground and she was being crushed in his arms, staring breathlessly into his dark wanting eyes before his lips crashed against hers.

It had been the hottest make out session of her life.

It probably would have turned into the hottest sex session of her life too if some idiot party goers hadn't followed their lead to get some fresh air.

They had broken apart both still panting heavily as he ushered her back inside where they were quickly pulled apart, a friend tugging them off in opposite directions of the club. She didn't see him again until she was drunkenly stumbling into a cab out front to head home. Their heated eyes met and she was working up the nerve to ask him if he wanted to join her back at her place, but it wasn't meant to be. Stefan came stumbling out of the club hauling a half passed out Rebekah with him pleading for Klaus's help in getting her into their cab.

The next time she saw Klaus he acted like that moment had never happened.

She had jokingly said to him how she couldn't believe how much she drank that night. To which he responded with a, "Yeah, I must have drank half the bar if the hangover the following morning was anything to go by."

She eyed him covertly, trying to see if he remembered anything as she replied, "Yeah, we sure tore up the dance floor though didn't we?" She had laughed to cover her nervousness, slowly adding, "Or maybe it was just me thinking we did, you know, being that drunk can change how you see things."

He had rubbed the back of his neck with his hand saying something along the lines of, that could very well be the case and then walked away from her. She stood there for a few minutes to compose herself, not sure if the tears filling her eyes were from feeling hurt or angry that he just acted like the hottest kiss she had ever had didn't exist anywhere but in her own head.

She chalked it up to that he either really didn't remember or he felt it was a huge mistake. Her pride didn't know which one to believe, not knowing which option was the lesser of two evils. She either wasn't worth remembering or he hated himself for kissing her in the first place.

Since then the tension between them could be cut with a knife. Sure, they smiled and talked when in the same room but Caroline had generally tried her best to avoid him like the plague. She only hoped that he would be busy with work, leaving her alone in his home without the added worry about him trying to ask her what was wrong with her lately like he had the past few times they had seen each other.

Caroline pulled her car to a stop in the driveway sucking in a few deep cleansing breaths to prepare before seeing him again. Her head fell back with a despondent groan thinking, _why did it have to be Klaus who had the perfect kitchen for this job?_

Out of the corner of her eye she noticed the front door open to reveal a smiling Klaus. Her eyes quickly ate him up as they roamed over his slim but fit muscled body, her tongue peeking out to swipe across her lips as she remembered his taste that haunted her dreams.

 _No!_

She was just going to use his kitchen, get her work done and get the hell out of there. It would be simple, easy even, he wouldn't even be there anyways, he would be off at his gallery leaving her with less stress to worry over.

Caroline roughly pulled her keys from the ignition, hitting the trunk release button before tossing them in her purse as she stepped out of the car with a smile plastered on her face.

"Good morning Caroline." Klaus said with a dimpled smile as he met her by the trunk. "I heard you had quite a disaster at your shop." He added with a sympathetic look in his eyes.

Caroline huffed, "Calling it a disaster is way too mild. It is more like a catastrophe! It's going to take at least a week to get it all fixed and that's only if they don't find any hidden problems once they strip the place down."

Klaus tilted his head slightly to the side, rubbing his hand up and down her arm, "I'm sure it will be fine, Love. You'll be back in your shop and up and running again in no time."

Her eyes widened fractionally as her breath caught in her chest, glancing from his hand touching her back up to his face before taking a step away, clearing her throat, "Yeah well that's the hope anyways."

"Yes, and until you are back to fully operational, you have the full use of my kitchen to use to your hearts content." He told her with a dimple filled smile.

"Thanks for this by the way, you really didn't have to let me take over your kitchen." She grinned back at him trying not to focus on how adorably hot those dimples cutting into his cheeks looked.

Klaus scoffed as he waved her off, "Nonsense Caroline, I have everything you need to make your marvelous sweets just waiting for you. My kitchen appliances might as well get some use for the price I paid for them don't you think?" He leaned in closer to her with a grin, "Besides Love, what are friends for?"

Caroline got lost in the way the sunlight glinted off his eyes, her mind trying to figure out just what shade they were, somewhere between a blue and a gray. Klaus's quiet clearing of his throat pulled her out of her inner musings.

Deciding it was best to get moving since the sooner she settled in, the sooner he would leave, she began shifting the plastic tubs around in the trunk, "Well, if you have time and wouldn't mind, I could really use your help carrying all this in the house."

She grinned as Klaus glanced into the trunk, his eyes widening at the amount of things she had shoved in there. "All of this?"

"Yup." She told him with a bouncy nod as she grabbed some of the bags, "All of it."

Klaus leaned in pushing the tubs around and selected one of the heavier of the three, his tight gray V-neck T-shirt doing very little to hide the flex of his muscles as he carried the tub past her with a labored chuckle, "Good thing I am at your disposal today Caroline, you would waste much of your time hauling these things into the house."

Her eyes latched on to the way his dark fitted jeans look over his, "Wait! What do you mean you are at my disposal today?" Her legs carried her faster, rushing ahead of him to open his front door, "Don't you have to go to work? You don't have to worry about leaving me here alone." She rolled her eyes playfully, "It's not like I'll steal from you."

His breath was slightly labored as he replied with a smirk, "Oh I know. But I am sure you normally work with a staff and seeing as Rebekah said you were coming alone I figured why not offer you my services."

She stood stock still as he whistled his way further into his house. This was not good. She so did not need this right now! Not after the morning she had.

She followed him into the kitchen, placing the bags on the counters, "Look Klaus, I really appreciate you letting me use you house to work but really, I work a lot better on my own."

Klaus set the tub to the floor and stood, leaning his forearms on to counter as he grinned, "I can take your bossy attitude Caroline. I was raise in the same home as Rebekah."

She cocked her hip out to the side, lifting a hand into the air, "One, I do not have a bossy attitude. And two, I just have a certain way of doing things and a certain order of liking them done. That does not mean I am bossy, it just means I am efficient. Now all I need from you is you to scamper off back outside and carry my things in here."

His smirk deepened as he slowly slid his hands over the countertop, which she was so not thinking of what they would feel like on her body okay?! He stalked his way to her, leaning in close as he passed, "See? I can handle your bossiness just fine Love. But I'll respect your wishes and stick to my office in the house today."

It took nearly the amount of time for him to go outside and bring the next tub in before she calmed her racing breath.

For the most part Klaus left her alone, he helped her to get settled into his kitchen, showed her where everything was as she marveled yet again on how amazing this kitchen was, it had everything she could ever dream of owning in her own home someday. She still couldn't get over what a waste it was, how utterly sad that such a beautiful kitchen sat unused. But as much at it pained her, at least it would get a good workout today with her. She got to work pulling out her supplies and arranging them around the countertop in the most efficient way to utilize the space before she realized Klaus was still in the room looking at her with that strange gleam in his eyes again.

"What?" She asked with a nervous laugh as she tucked a stray curl behind her ear.

His mouth opened but nothing came out before he closed it with a shake of his head, "Nothing. If you need anything I'll be in my office." He hesitated for a moment before shaking his head again slightly then left.

Caroline leaned forward with her hands braced on the countertop, closing her eyes with a sigh. She really wished he had just gone into the gallery today instead of staying here. It would be so much easier to forget just whose house she was in if he wasn't here. Standing straight she squared her shoulders and set to work, glad that at least he wouldn't be spending the day in here, right underfoot to constantly remind her of what never was.

She worked for hours without seeing him other than when he popped his head into the kitchen to let her know he planned to order in for lunch and politely asking if she would like anything and then once more when he dropped her food off before disappearing after another one of his hesitant gazes.

She smiled widely as she placed the last of the tiny cakes in the elegant box, ten different flavor combinations with four samples per flavor, enough to wow any bridezilla into a sugary induced coma. Caroline clasped her hands together placing them to her lips, her eyes sparkled as she took in her final creations, they were…

"Beautiful."

Klaus's voice from over her shoulder made her jump with a gasp as her hand flew to her chest. "Klaus! You scared the crap out of me!"

"They look absolutely delicious Caroline." He chose to ignore her, his hand reaching forward with a will of its own towards the delectable little confections.

"Hey! Don't you dare!" Caroline shouted, smacking his hand away from her masterpieces.

Klaus turned and looked at her, his lip pushed out in a pout that she just wanted to take between her lips and suck, hard. "That was rude Caroline. Here I am, graciously allowing you to use my facilities and you can't even share what has filtered that lovey smell through my home."

Caroline narrowed her eyes, her hands resting on her hips, "You will not be sweet-talking me Mikaelson." She pointed a hand to the box on the countertop, "Those are for my cake tasting tomorrow."

"I'm sure the bride won't miss just one Caroline." His head lowered as he threw his wide glistening puppy dog eyes at her.

She only hoped he didn't noticed the blush that grew on her cheeks or the twinkle of lust that she knew sparkled in her own eyes at the sight.

"Well, you can't have those. But," She turned away from him to show him what else she had and to maybe try and cool her body down. "These you can have."

Klaus excitedly stepped beside her looking to the area on the counter she waved her hand over. His excitement fell away to a furrowed frown, "These aren't even frosted Caroline."

She laughed throwing her head back, completely missing the admiring gaze Klaus was aiming her way, "My God Klaus! You are such a child!"

"I fail to see what's so funny Caroline. You better than most should know people like frosting with their cake."

"Well duh!" She rolled her eyes good naturedly at him with a beaming smile as she showed him the multiple bowls waiting to be used, "I've been working with some new ideas for frosting flavors and I wasn't sure which you would want to try so I made extra. My little way of saying thank you for letting me take over your kitchen for the day."

"You made extra for me?" Caroline didn't understand the pure shock he had in his voice at that fact.

"Who else would I make it for? All your girlfriends you have stashed in the many rooms of this place?" The bashful huff with a hint of a scathing quality coming from him made her pause, asking him in a mock whisper, "You don't have girls stashed in rooms here do you?" The look he gave her would have made smaller people cower in fear, her; she raised her hands, "No need to get all huffy!" She shook her head as she turned to show him all she had pointing to the different flavors as she went, "Luscious Lemon, Tempting Toffee, Irresistible Raspberry, Succulent Strawberry, Titillating Chocolate and this one, I call Lustful Awakening, since it's coffee flavored."

She turned to look at him with a bright smile, licking her lips at the darkening haze that fell over his eyes and the rapid rise and fall of his chest. His gruff voice sent a shiver down her spine as he spoke.

"You named your flavors after sex?"

"No not _after_ sex, just with a sexual undertone. Food, especially sweets, should be about the full experience. Have the capabilities of giving you a food-gasm with a single bite. If it doesn't then that means I'm doing it wrong."

"Trust me, you aren't doing it wrong." He grumbled beside her.

His voice was so low and muttered that she could quite understand what he said. "What was that?"

"Nothing Love."

She shrugged her shoulders, trying not to hope she heard what she thought he had said as she picked up a frosting spatula, "So, since there are no girls hidden in your house, is there any special girl in your life right now?" Caroline winced, wishing she hadn't asked that. She was always talking before she thought it though.

Klaus chuckled humorously next to her, "There is one in particular that has caught my fancy for some time now, but I can't seem to figure out what to do about her."

Caroline felt a lead weight settle in her stomach, she tried to outwardly show she wasn't affected as she scooped up some frosting to smear over the next layer of the tiny cake, "Oh. So when is your next date?" Ugh! It was like bile in her throat letting those words come out of her mouth.

Klaus scoffed, "There has to be a first date in order to call for a second. I don't believe it matters much anyway, I am quite sure she has no idea or worse, she does and wants nothing to do with me."

 _Yeah, I know the feeling buddy,_ she thought to herself. But being the wonderful great person she was she told him as she frosted the last layer, "So do something to make her stand up and take notice. Sweep her off her feet with all that seductive Mikaelson charm." She never wanted to hit herself so hard before in her life. _Way to go Caroline! Push him towards another woman why don't you? You are such an epic moron!_ She was so busy mentally berating herself that she hadn't noticed that Klaus's body had turned to face her, his hip pressed against the countertop just scant inches away from her.

"You know Caroline," His dark seductive voice drew her attention, his eyes hypnotizing her like a snake charmer, until he began to speak again and she had to bite her lip to hold back the moan begging to be released at the way his mouth curved around each word, "as delectable as that Succulent Strawberry would taste with the chocolate cake, there is something else I would love to taste it on."

She couldn't even find it in herself to yell at him for sticking his finger in the frosting bowl, his body was so close to hers, his breath washed over her face and held her captive. Caroline could only hope she didn't make a complete fool of herself with the shuddering breath leaving her lungs, "What do you want to try on?" Oh God! If this was a dream, right at this moment he would say…

"You." Klaus said as he took the final step, pressing his lean hard body into hers.

 _Wait what?!_ Her eyes rounded as they searched his face, this was normally the part of her dream when he would lean in to kiss her then just before their lips would meet she would wake up. She wanted to say something, something good, something, anything at all! "What?" _Brilliant Caroline._

"Is it really that hard to believe?" His murmured as his index finger smoothed over her lower lip, pulling it out from between her teeth, "I have wanted you for longer than I care to admit. The taste of your lips haunts my very sleep Caroline."

His hand cupped the side of her face gently causing her body to quiver and a choked whimper to escape from her parted lips. His eyes seemed to flash at the sound and then next thing she knew she was pulled into his embrace, his arms crushing her as he bent her slightly backwards and his hot wet tongue invaded her mouth.

She mind tried to catch up to the fact that he had been talking about her. That he did in fact remember but he was just as scared as her to say anything. But her mouth was filled with the taste of his tongue mixed with the strawberry frosting that she didn't realize her had smeared over her lip making all thoughts next to impossible.

His lips left hers, placing a kiss to the side of her mouth before he trailed a line of kisses up to her ear. His harsh breath rasped in his ear, his hand pulled her hair loose from its ponytail grasping it by the roots at the back of her neck as it fell, "Tell me you want me. Tell me you remember. Tell me it wasn't just some glorious dream my mind concocted all those mouths ago."

Caroline grasped the back of his neck, her body arched into his moaning as his stubble scratched against the side of her face as he pulled back to look her straight in the eyes and demand, "Tell me."

Her lips trembled as she breathed, "Yes."

His hand ran down the arch of her back cupping her lower cheeks, yanking her into his hard body, flicking his tongue out to just barely enter her mouth before snarling, "Yes what?"

"I want you. God! I want you."

The rumble in his chest reverberated through hers as he smashed their lips together, teeth clinking as their tongues dueled.

Her eyes fluttered closed as she squirmed against his body, groaning wildly as her nipples rubbed against the inside of her bra. He spun them around pushing her with his hips against the counter his hands holding the sides of her neck as their lips continued dancing wetly together.

His hand flew to the top of her button-down shirt fumbling with the top button before he gave up, ripping it open and sending buttons scattering across the room. He left her lips staring down at her heaving chest with fire in his eyes before his hands went under her arms holding her steady by her shoulder blades as he placed wet rushed kisses where her bra didn't cover murmuring, "It wasn't a dream."

Caroline tossed her head back with a moan as his tongue dipped under the edge of her bra, her hands fisted in his hair, "No, it wasn't."

His dark lust full eyes glanced up at her as his tongue slithered under her bra once more, "You remember."

"Yes." She shakily replied, hitching her leg over his hip.

One hand left her back to slide up her leg from knee to hip, rubbing the side of his face over her cleavage as he rasped, "You want me."

A cross between a whimper and a groan expelled from her lips as he rocked his hips against her center. "Yes."

Caroline whined as he stopped moving and stood them both straight, "Now?"

She couldn't believe he was even asking her this. Especially when she could feel the throb of his cock trapped inside his pants laying hotly against the inside of her thigh.

"Yes damn it! Now!" She all but yelled in frustration.

"No need to shout Caroline." He chastised her before his lips curved into a smug smirk, "Well, not yet anyways."

Before she could retort he had her lips trapped with his own, his hand trailing over her breast down her stomach to the top of her jeans, snapping the button open and yanking down her zipper.

His hand dipped under her panties, his knuckle brushed against her clit sending her reeling, her head falling back as he twisted his hand to run his finger over her slit. His deep masculine groan spiked her arousal as he rasped against the front of her neck, "So wet Caroline. So very wet."

His arm snaked up her back gripping her hair in his fist as he held her up, both moaning hoarsly from kiss swollen lips as he pushed a single digit into her soaking core.

He set a quick near punishing pace that had her eyes opening wide as she felt her orgasm begin to crest faster than she had ever felt before. Her hips undulated against his hand as his finger attacked the same spot over and over again, his palm rubbing against her clit with every move. Her eyes latched onto his face, his full bottom lip hanging open as his breath rushed out, his eyes stared at her face devouring every reaction he pulled from her. And then it hit her like a tidal wave, her inner walls clamped down on his finger as her body shook with pleasure, her nails digging into his shoulders as her voice cracked on his name. "Fuck Klaus!"

She had just regained herself from her orgasm, her head resting against his chest as he held her with his hands rubbing soft soothing circle over her back. She raised her head from his chest to look at him in the eyes, watching them darken in need as hers spoke to him silently, _Not enough. More. Now._

His jaw clenched as his chest heaved and she felt his cock twitch against her leg. Smirking at him lustfully she ran her hands down to the bottom of his shirt, yanking it out of his pants and pulling it over his head. The next few minutes were nothing but a blur as they stripped each other of their clothing, letting it all flutter to be forgotten to the floor around them. Both seemed to be of a similar mindset, there would be time for slow later. There would be time to savor the other later. But for now, they had waited long enough.

Klaus yanked her into his arms before gently lowered her body to the kitchen floor, the sounds of something crashing to the floor from the countertop barely registered in her mind, not caring since she knew her confections for tomorrow were safely sitting on the other side of the kitchen.

And then there was nothing left in the world but the sounds of Klaus's guttural groan as he opened her legs and pushed his way deeply inside her.

His body laid completely over hers resting on his forearms as his hands smoothly slid over the sides of her face, their large hazy eyes staring into each other's inches apart as their hot breaths meshed and mingled together.

She could feel his heart pounding right along with her own as he pulled his hips back before snapping them flush against hers. Her body trembled beneath his, her legs lifting to lock around his lower back, her nails scouring and dragging over his shoulders as he continued snapping his hips again and again.

His panting breath hissed between his clenched teeth as she moaned and writhed completely caught in the web of erotic pleasure his body gave her. His pelvis began rotating in random circles and with every snap forward of his hips her inner walls clamped down on his ridged cock tighter.

"Fuck yes Caroline."

His deep sensual voice broke shivers out across her skin as she clung to his body harder as the heat began to unfurl within her core before it snapped. Her entire body vibrating as the intensity of her orgasm washed over her, her voice cracking as she shouted his name toward the ceiling.

She felt his body bow and tremble over hers as he roared out his pleasure as his cock began twitching deep inside of her.

Once his release was over he fell to her side, pulling her over to rest half on top of him as her body still thrummed with pleasure, their breaths still heavy from exertion.

As their hearts slowed from their frantic pace she felt her head lift and fall as he chuckled. She lazily raised her head with a content grin, "What?"

He swiped a finger down the side of her cheek, pulling it back to show her the frosting on its tip before popping it in his mouth with a pleased hum, "While I've never been a fan of raspberry, I have to admit it taste incredible off your skin."

She ducked her head with a blush only to look back up into his newly heated gaze as he lifted her chin, "I am quite the fan of chocolate though Love. Perhaps we can see how much more delicious it will be when I lick it off your delectable skin." He smirked as he pulled a gasp from her as his finger flicked over her nipple.

Caroline hummed with her head tilted to the side, "And after, maybe I can see how it will taste as I lick it off you." She smirked as she felt his cock twitch against her hip.

Klaus rolled them over, smothering her giggles with his lips before trailing his way down to take her nipple into the heat his mouth.

Caroline thought randomly as his tongue twirled over her peak that she was right all those months ago. This was definitely the hottest sex session she ever had, and by the way he was slowly trailing his mouth across her chest to her other nipple, she had a feeling that it would only get hotter and hotter.

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Well…Tah-Dah. This concludes my Klaroline Episode for All Human Day. ;)

PS…you know the wonderful thing about Tumblr? You can message/ask me even as a "guest" or "anonymously" or even as yourself! Try it out! As a lot of you know I love chatting! Or trying to answer strange questions…or talking about Klaroline! OH! You could send me a little prompt too, say if you have an idea you'd like me to give a go to.


	11. By the Light of the Moon

Klaroline AU Week Day Five. Canon-ish.

 **By the Light of the Moon.**

 **NSFW**

Another prompt sent to me by the lovely Ashleigh: _The urge to interrupt him before he had finished was overwhelming._

Time frame and setting for this is Mystic Falls during Season 4, Silas's reign of terror. Klaus and Hayley never happened and Kol is not dead.

Welcome to all the followers and favorites, new and old! Thank you to everyone who has reviewed my work. And thank you to all of you who have stopped by to read! I really appreciate the love and support!

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Everyone had scattered, including Caroline's Mother who she had asked, well argued with until her Mother was guilt tripped into caving, to secretly leave town under the strict agreement to not tell her or anyone else where she was going, only to call to check in and get as far from Mystic Falls as the cash Caroline had taken out of the bank would allow. With Silas terrorizing the town on his manhunt for Bonnie no one was safe. And until they could all come up with a plan to permanently put the insanely powerful, and slightly crazy, immortal down they had no other choice but to retreat and go into hiding. Their theory was that if he couldn't find them then he couldn't threaten them.

In other words, just another day in the life of the Mystic Falls gang; a deranged psycho who wanted something and was willing to take down anyone and anything in his path to get it. No surprises there.

What was a surprise to the small group of friends was the willingness of the Originals offer to help, or at least work with them towards a common goal. Once the everyone had learned the gravity of raising Silas everyone scrambled to work together to put this guy down, or at the very least, find a way to put him back into his sleeping stone state. Though Kol did have a hell of a time telling everyone a big fat, I told you so.

Kol had taken Bonnie underground, stealthily traveling through the witch connects he had made over the centuries to find the spell that would entomb Silas and help her control her new expression magic.

Elijah went with Damon and Elena as Katherine bait in attempts to raise their chances of obtaining the cure from her. Once everyone finally decided to listen to Kol, they quickly learned that the cure was not what they had first thought. It wasn't some miracle cure for vampirism, it would only work to strip the immortality way from whoever took it, leaving them to be open to death as well as aging to what would be their natural age. Rebekah, still reeling from having her dreams crushed, had grabbed ahold of Stefan taking were off God knows where, doing God knows what. All she had said before stomping out the door was they needed to find a backup plan in case Bonnie and Kol's search failed.

After Rebekah and Stefan's abrupt departure, they had all decided someone had to stay behind, covertly keeping an eye on things happening in the town. Caroline had volunteered, though the only reason she did was so she could feel she had some kind of control over what she would be doing to help. Her proposal had barely left her mouth before Klaus had all but jumped on the fact that she should not be staying here alone. Elena had smiled and said that she could stay, both girls excited at the prospect of what they would turn into a non-stop girl's night in a cabin, before Klaus had scoffed and Damon argued that even as vampires they were no match for a villain like Silas, especially if he turn the biggest bad they knew into a whimpering mess. Caroline had tried really hard to hold back her satisfied grin at the sound of Damon's neck breaking.

So now here she was, the days turned to weeks and the weeks were swiftly approaching a month, alone with Klaus in a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere.

As much as Caroline wished she could complain about him, Klaus had been nothing but the perfect gentleman and surprisingly a decent roommate. He didn't crowd her but also never really left her alone, which she begrudgingly admitted if only to herself, that it made her feel just a little safer knowing he was there.

Even with the protection of the Original Hybrid and the ability to do her own thing as much as the small cabin allowed, Caroline had realized very quickly that living with Klaus in the middle of the woods was detrimental to her mental health. Being with him day in and day out made it next to impossible to ignore the growing feelings she had about him like it had been back home with every reason why she shouldn't feel those things starring her in the face.

Out here away from everyone, every time she thought she had a grip on them something would happen to throw her back into a tailspin. The freaking man was everywhere!

Klaus smiling and making her laugh as they made dinner together.

Klaus weaving stories of past historical events, enthralling her in their depths in a way her teachers never could dream of.

Klaus teasing her playfully as she explained to him the chore chart.

Klaus pulling his share of the work off said chore chart with nothing but a boyish grin.

Klaus softly asking her to stay still when she would move to get up after lounging and reading for hours on end. - The first time it had happened her eyes had widened like an owl's when she realized he was drawing her and had bolted from the room. So what if after that night she would peek from around her book to make sure he was finished drawing her before she got up? It meant nothing. Nope. Nothing at all. That was her story and she was sticking to it.

The way the firelight glistening over him as they sat by the fireplace.

The way his face would play a myriad of emotions as he worked, the soft scratching sound of his graphite pencil turned into a soothing melody that often would lull her to sleep.

Then she would wake up the next morning tucked into her bed, the faint smell of him surrounding her from him carrying her to bed.

Those were all things that confused and pulled at her heart when it came to him, that showed her a different side to him that she hadn't thought existed. These were all the things that made her stop and wonder if she really was just a game with him. If it really was just the challenge of her that he was after as she had originally assumed.

Then there were the _other_ things that sparked _other_ feelings that she had trouble blocking out.

Klaus stepping out of the shower, water dripping down his naked chest with a towel wrapped around his waist did nothing but waking her vivid imagination and bringing a blush to her cheeks.

Klaus's muscles rippling, sweat pouring down his body as he chopped wood in the heat of the day. Shirtless.

The musky woodsy smell of him that made her mouth water after he gladly took the towel from her to wipe the days sweat from his brow. - So what if she began to pant as she just happened to take a sniff of the towel, it didn't have to _mean_ anything.

Klaus closing his eyes with a moan of pleasure at whatever baked goods she had stressed baked for the day. - Because of course she turned to baking, she had already cleaned the place ten times over. She was proud to say that not a single cobweb sat in any corner of the cabin. Plus baking was soothing and it gave her more to cleanup afterwards. Not to mention it helped her to keep her mind off the _other_ feelings. So what if she had to clear her throat to keep from moaning right along with him. Really, it meant nothing.

The dark gaze that would grow in his blue-gray eyes sometimes when he would look at her, she would find herself wondering what exactly he was thinking in those moments before shaking such thoughts from her head.

Sure she found him attractive, Um Hello?! You'd have to be blind not to! But these _other_ things that caused the _other_ feelings were not too helpful in the dead of night, they were at times agonizing. It was even worse when they were both awake and she worried whether his freaky hybrid senses could pick up the affects they brought in her. Being in very close quarters with him was so not a good idea when these kinds of feeling viciously reared their head.

Which is what brought Caroline outside now in the middle of the night.

She was heading to the small lake the two of them had discovered recently during one of their little nature hikes they started to take when the work was done and sitting around doing the same old thing was trying their patience.

She hadn't heard movement coming from Klaus's room, and seeing as it was nearly three in the morning, she assumed he was asleep. Caroline figured a quick trip to cool off in the water of the lake was just what she needed to tone down these _other_ feelings and urges.

Dressed in her pajama shorts and tank-top with a towel slung over her shoulder she rounded the thick bushes with a relieved smile as the lake came into view.

That's when a husky male gasp made her stop in her tracks.

A wispy cloud passed over the nearly full moon allowing it's light to filter down and cast a silvery haze over the lake and the purely male body that was leaning naked against a giant rock at the lake's edge.

It was Klaus.

It was a naked Klaus standing in the moon light with his eyes closed and his head tilted towards the night sky looking every inch like some Greek God's statue come to life.

Caroline's eyes widened as they trailed over his body taking in all the details slowly, her breath exhaled in a quiet gasp that she quickly covered with her hand not wanting to alert him to her presence.

She knew she should turn around and leave. She screamed in her mind that she should flash away before he took notice of her standing there like some creepy Peeping Tom.

But she couldn't, because that was when she realized something.

Something that made her cheeks fill with a hot blush, her nipples pucker against her tank-top and a throb begin between her legs as a shot of white hot lust hit her so hard it stole her breath away.

Klaus had his hand wrapped around his cock, stroking it from tip to base, with delicious sounds of pleasure flowing from his mouth.

She was hypnotized.

Caroline couldn't move from where she stood even if she tried.

All the reasons why she was out here for a late night swim in the first place were standing right there before her in a complete feast for her senses.

She knew it was wrong, so wrong, to stand here and bear witness to this obviously private moment, but how could something so wrong look just so damn right?

There he stood with his legs braced apart, the muscles in them flexing and trembling as another drawn out moan left his full open lips.

Caroline licked her lips, her eager eyes following the movement of his hand that had been pressed into the rock behind him as it slide across his chest, down his chiseled abs, stopping at that defined V shape right above his pelvis. As he lifted his hand to follow that same path again, she found herself wanted nothing more than to knock his hand away and lick and nip her way across it.

His toes curled into the sand at his feet, her breath hitching right along with his.

She wondered what he was thinking of, what was playing through his mind. What fantasy had him so worked up that he couldn't make it go away? That he was so turned on that he felt he just had to come out here to do this?

A gentle breeze washed over her from behind brushing against her skin causing her nipples to harden even more, her hair tickling the exposed skin of her arms and face making her wish it was his fingers bringing that reaction out of her.

And in the next instant she had her answers.

A deep groan left his mouth in the form of her name.

Caroline nearly stumbled at the sound, her heart racing with her eyes glued to his body completely captivated by the erotic sight as she stifled a whimper as she realized this was all for her.

Both his hands began moving faster. The air rushing in and out of her lungs as she matched his labored breath.

The hand running over his chest and abs didn't stop this time as he continued down cupping his sac, rolling and tugging gently with a guttural groan.

She watched his hand in avid attention as his grip tightened on his rock hard cock for a moment before he raised it quickly up to his mouth, swiping over his palm with his wet tongue before taking his cock back into his grip stroking faster and rougher than before.

Klaus's body began to shake.

His head was thrown back, his mouth hanging open with his harsh labored breath rushing out of him.

The urge to interrupt him before he had finished was overwhelming. Especially when he began chanting her name like a prayer between random curse words in what she imagined to be every language he knew.

But she was rooted in the spot where she stood. Her thighs rubbing together making her aware of just how wet she was.

And then it happened.

And oh, what a beautiful sight it was.

His arm that was pumping and twisting his hand around his cock started shaking violently as the rest of his body locked up.

His toes dug into the sand, his back pressing into the rock behind him for support as a near animalistic growl howled from his lush mouth, his release spurting from his cock in long glistening waves.

Her mouth was dry, her heart pounded and her chest was heaving. She swiped her tongue across her chapped lips in attempts to moisten them.

Caroline stared on, completely mesmerized as his hand began to slow its stroking motions, his sweat covered body sagging against the rock as his head fell to his chest with a blissful sigh.

Her brain finally caught up with just what she had been doing, what she had just seen. As breathtaking as it had been, Caroline knew if she didn't flash away now Klaus would find her there and she wasn't quite sure of what might happen next. She wasn't sure if she was _ready_ for what might happen next.

Spinning on her heels Caroline flashed back to the cabin faster than she had ever moved before. She was through the door and down the hall to her room before a human could have blinked twice. The towel was left forgotten on the floor by her bedroom door that she carelessly left open a few inches. Her shirt hit the floor, pulling a gasp from her lungs as it brushed her painfully hard nipples on its way. Her shorts and panties following suit without a second thought. Then she was on her bed, the covers kicked to the end as her hands began running over her breasts, pinching and plucking at her nipples sending electric currents straight down to her core.

A solitary part of her mind screamed at her to hurry, that Klaus would likely be back any minute and there would be no denying what she was up to in her bedroom.

The rest of her thought with a sly smile; who cares? He unintentionally put on a show for her, so why not do the same?

The thought of Klaus walking in the cabin, making his way down the hall to his room only to pause outside of her door, listening in on her only made her core throb and pulse in need.

Running a hand down her stomach, across her hip and down the top of her leg, Caroline exhaled a shaky sigh when her fingertips slid through the arousal that was coating her inner thighs.

Drifting her hand up, she cupped her swollen mound, whimpering and biting her lower lip as she swiped a single finger up her soaking slit to her pulsating clit.

Under normal circumstances she would need the help of her vibrator to get off. But knowing where she would be and who she would be with, she left it at home in the drawer next to her bed.

But then, these weren't really normal circumstances were they? She thought as her finger circled her clit before brushing down to ease slowly inside her core.

The images of Klaus stroking himself to completion under the moonlight played in a constant loop through her mind. She pressed the palm of her hand against her clit with ever gentle thrust of her finger inside her hot center.

Her breath was heavy, matching the sounds echoing in her mind of Klaus out by the lake. A small part of her realizing that it was only echoing so loudly because he was standing right outside her door at that very moment; listening to her, watching her.

It was that small part of her that wanted to cower and hide in embarrassment. She chose to ignore that part completely. Telling herself he would just assume since the cabin had been silent, that she would have thought him to be asleep.

She plucked and twisted her nipple as she thrusted a second finger in her core, her back arching off the bed with her breath hitching before she exhaled a long groaning whimper.

Her head was thrown back against her pillows, her eyes squeezed shut as her hand picked up its pace, thrusting and rubbing bring more and more wetness to her core as her body felt coiled as tight as a spring.

She could feel the heat of Klaus's gaze all over her skin causing a fire to erupt throughout her body.

Her curiosity got the better of her but she knew well enough to be careful. Slowly her head drifted to the side as she cracked her eyes open just enough to see the shadows around the room. Through the opening of the door she could just make out the man shaped shadow that was braced against her doorframe.

It only made her desire and arousal stronger.

Her hand left her breast and rushed down to her inner thigh pushing her legs open wider as she frantically rubbed her palm over her clit and started curling her thrusting fingers to brush against her inner walls. Her hips rose and fell to the bed in sync with her hand, a ragged moan of, "Fuck me." leaving her open panting mouth.

It didn't take but a few more thrusts of hitting the same spot over and over again, her body thrashing on the bed to the pleasure she was bringing herself that was fueled by the erotic images of Klaus and knowing he was there outside the door watching.

She bit back the moan of his name only allowing the first sound of it to leave her before turning it into a keening whimper.

Caroline's body thrummed with a yearning desire. She hoarsly shouted out her satisfaction as she shook with the overwhelming orgasm that crashed over her.

Still shaking, she gradually sank back down onto the bed as her hand began slowing its movement as she twitched in the aftershocks.

Pulling her hand away from her core, Caroline let it fall to her hip as she lazily lifted her other hand to lay it across her chest, the feel of her pounding heart lulling her into a much needed sleep.

With the last part of her conscious mind she realized that Klaus was still there, on the other side of the door staring at her. She knew exactly what he would see since at times she enjoyed watching herself get off in the mirror when she was alone.

Flushed cheeks, tangled blonde hair scattered around her head and face and her chest heaving as she came down from her excitement were the sight that he would be offered.

Her last thought as her breathing calmed was that she wondered what Klaus would think of what he just saw.

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"Good Morning Caroline. Did you sleep well?" His soft but slightly smug voice greeted her ears as she walked into the kitchen.

Pouring coffee Caroline kept her back turned to him and her voice normal with a hint of smugness as well, "I had a little trouble at first but once I was able to relax I slept like a baby."

"I'm sure you did." He muttered.

Caroline spun on her heels unexpectedly with an innocent look and her head slightly cocked to the side as she caught him off guard, "What was that?"

Klaus's eyes widened fractionally before he cleared his throat, "I'm glad you did. So what are you up to today? And plans, Love?"

"Actually I was thinking about just lounging around here today but maybe later," She trailed off busying herself as she stirred her creamer and sugar into her coffee.

"Yes Love?" The curiosity could be heard in his voice along with a slight strain.

"Well it's been a while since we've taken a nice long walk through the woods." She casually replied to him.

"Yes there are some trails we've yet to cover."

"True," She nodded her head, "but I was actually thinking about taking in the sights down by the lake. I'm sure it would hold some pretty amazing views at night especially with it so close to the full moon." She used her mug as a cover for the smirk growing on her face as his eyes widened fractionally and he stopped breathing for a second.

Klaus began fidgeting with sketchbook as his eyes glanced around the room quickly and she could see the wheels turning in his head, "Yes well I am sure you will enjoy it."

"Do you want to join me this time?" She threw at him quickly with just the right amount of edge to her voice.

"What?" Klaus uttered breathlessly as his mind conjured up the sights and sound he had witnessed last night, only this time he was right there on the bed with her.

"On the walk? Around the lake tonight?" Caroline waved her free hand in tiny circles before placing it on her cocked hip biting back a giggle, "Klaus were you even listening?"

"Of course," He assured her, "I'd love nothing more than to join you." His tone dropped into a husky timber towards the end, eyeing her for a reaction as he tried to decipher if she seen had him last night and was aware that he had seen her as well.

Her sunny smile and sparkling blue eyes gave nothing away, "Great! Well I have some phone calls to make, check in's and all that, then I really want to finish up that book you suggested." She placed her coffee mug in the sink before titling her head cutely, "So what do you think? After dinner tonight sound good?"

"Sounds perfect Caroline." He leaned back in his chair with his arm slung over its back and dropped his head to pin her with his stare, "I'm looking forward to it."

Caroline faltered for a second before smiling, "Yeah me too."

Klaus's eyes were glued to the way her robe fanned out as she spun along with the gentle sway of her hips as she left the room. A war was waging inside his head, wondering if she knew or not. He began thinking that perhaps that whiff of her scent he had smelled last night wasn't all in his wishfully thinking mind after all.

A scandalous smirk grew over his lips as he looked towards the hallway Caroline had disappeared through thinking it might be time to raise the stakes and step up his level of seduction towards her. It seems she might be more receptive than he had thought. That she was possible ready for more than the subtle flirtations. He had heard the beginnings of his name fall from her lush lips as she brought herself over the edge last night and that gave him just the right amount of confidence that he needed when it came to the lovely Caroline.

Klaus flipped his sketchbook open intent on finishing the drawing of her sprawled out on her sheets. As he added in the sweeping curve of her neck with her head thrown back in ecstasy he thought; _Game on Love, game on._ This was one game he planned on winning for keeps.

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Day Five of Klaroline AU Week, Canon-ish is complete. Thanks for reading!


	12. Direction comes in a small package…

Klaroline AU Week Day 6. Myths/Legend Day.

 **Direction comes in a small package…with wings.**

Setting: After Klaus has broken his curse. Caroline is NOT a part of the Mystic Falls gang. Caroline is a…well you'll see ;)

Thank you so much for all the lovely reviews! I will be working hard to answer back each and every one of you just as soon as I can. You are all so lovely! It brings a smile to my face with each and every review and read!

Don't forget, if you haven't done so yet, you can also follow me on Tumblr, 3tinkgemini.

Enjoy!

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Klaus tilted his head to the side, his grayish-blue tinted eyes surveying the landscape around him with a critical eye before turning back to his portable table to pick up the tub of burnt sienna finding his original attempt to match the colors of the leaves a touch too light. Adding the color to his palette he used his painting knife to carefully smooth and blend the colors together. Turning back to the easel he had placed in the center of a small glade deep with the forest of the Andes Mountains and not too far away from the small secluded log cabin he had built here years ago he went back to making his smooth strokes with his brush as he let his mind drift.

Klaus had hoped that by coming out here, alone in the middle of the vast mountain rage, he would be able to find a sense of direction once more.

Mikael was dead. His curse was broken. He and his family were finally free to live their lives without fear. He held at the ready an army of hybrids to protect them and do his bidding. He was the most power creature on the planet and yet he felt…Klaus frowned deep in thought as his brush continued swiping methodically over the canvas.

For the first time in a thousand years he felt lost.

He had no plots. No deranged Father chasing after him. He had his hybrids, though he found they were not as fulfilling as he had once thought and hoped them to be. His family, now un-daggered, were off gallivanting across the globe. _Anywhere that was away from him._ Klaus thought with a grim frown. His siblings had all spoke of their want and need to live their own lives for the first time in a thousand years. Then the entire thankless lot of them agreed that he should go out and find a life of his own as well.

Klaus snarled as he pressed the brush a little too harshly against the canvas.

He had stormed out of their home in Mystic Falls yelling back at them that they could all burn in Hell for all he cared and not to come crawling back to him when things went inevitably wrong.

What was there left for him to find now that the war was over? Now that he has gained the few things he has wanted for so long; Mikael dead, his curse broken, his family safe and hybrids by his side? What was he to do now when there is nothing new left in this retched world? He had traveled the world a hundred times over, he had seen it change and grow. For the first time in forever he can finally relax and do something for himself. As his sister had said, _"Find yourself a life outside of all the running, the doppelgangers, and the power plays just to stay two steps ahead of everyone else."_

His hand was poised inches away from the nearly finished landscape; hesitation filled him as thoughts ran rampant through his mind.

Klaus let his arm fall to his side with a low sigh that sounded borderline depressed even to his own ears.

He wanted something new, something he had never done before. He wanted that spark back, that indescribable yearning for the unknown that he had not felt in so long.

Klaus could vividly recall every time he had come across something new, whether it was man made or formed by the laws of nature its self. He had felt a sudden zest for life, a thrill unlike any other. He remembered the exhilaration that he felt rush over him upon every new discovery.

He wanted to feel like that again.

But how or where he would find it he had no idea. So that's what led him here. The one place in the entire world where he could allow his guard to fall, to drop the ever tiring façade of the Original Hybrid and search down deep into the soul of the man he was in hopes to find what he was looking for and where to go next.

Klaus began packing up his art supplies, a heavy melancholy hung around him nearly suffocating his very breath. Tears welled in his eyes, emotions clogging his throat as he could taste on his tongue just how much he wanted these things in his life again. He slammed the lid of his case closed after placing the last brush in its velvet home with a scathing scoff as he mentally named himself a fool for his fanciful thoughts.

He paused for a moment after packing everything up besides the still wet painting, stopping to take in the view hoping to gather his thoughts and find his center once more.

His eyes calmly traced around the small glade. He had chosen this particular area for his cabin not only for the seclusion and privacy it offered but because this was the where of one of those life-affirming thrilling moments had occurred. In the very spot he now stood, many years ago he had encountered a hummingbird. It had fluttered straight up to his face, he had assumed it would see him as the predator he was and quickly fly away.

Only it didn't.

It stayed, turning its long beak to the side and hovered there staring at him and rendering him speechless. Having listened to its tiny heart pattering away like a machine gun Klaus remembered thinking in awe at the time, of how hard this little creature worked every day just to survive, and how satisfying everyday must be.

It was a profound moment for him and Klaus hoped that maybe this glade, with its spectacular view of the other side of the mountain range off in the distance, would offer him yet another moment of the same. That is why he came here, why he built his cabin here, this place held a sort of mystery to it that he had found nowhere else in the world.

Klaus leaned his body back against a tree, folding his arms across his chest taking in the surroundings while holding onto a small sliver of hope that something would guide him. After a few minutes had passed Klaus huffed at his actions, running a hand over his tired face mocking himself for his whimsical thoughts, as if some spark was just going to magically flutter up to him and give him a new direction.

A sudden soft tinkling sound of high pitched bells came out of nowhere.

Klaus dropped his hand from his face looking around in puzzlement when he could find nothing in the area that would make such a sound and heard no other heartbeats other than the tiny fast paces of the smaller animals. A flashing simmer of golden light buzzed around the area followed along quickly by a simmering green light. Furrowing his forehead Klaus tracked their movements; finding two separate balls of light looking to be caught in a game of chase flying around so fast that if it wasn't for his enhanced senses he wouldn't have even noticed them.

The just bigger than a fist sized golden light ducked behind a tree and seemed to be peeking out from around the truck as the green light stopped and floated in the air with a twisting motion as if it was searching for the other.

Klaus began to wonder if it were possible for a creature such as himself to lose his mind.

Everything that happened next did so so quickly that it took him, even with his superior senses, a few moments for his mind to catch up with the fast moving events that transpired right before his eyes.

The golden light soared out from behind the tree tackling the green one in midair, their lights glowing brighter and brighter, nearly blinding him for the split second it occurred, before in a sudden burst both lights were thrown back from each other a few feet before crashing to the ground.

Klaus darted his eyes back and forth between the two fading lights. His curiosity raging he flashed over to see what had become of, whatever they were. It happened in the quickness it took him to flash the length of the glade, the green light continued fading before it disappeared completely leaving behind no trace that it was ever there.

Klaus squinted his eyes as he bent down shuffling the leaves and dirt around but finding nothing. He turned his head towards the spot he had saw the golden light crash to the ground expecting to find similar results but was shocked when that was not the case.

Kneel down to the ground slowly; Klaus studied the slowly fading golden light only to reel back in shock at what he found beneath it.

His heart pounded in his chest as he regained his bearings and shuffled closer squatting down over the tiny little creature.

His eyes widened in awe as the golden light turned into a sparkling dust over the nearly translucent skin of a tiny winged woman. A very beautiful tiny winged woman. She had long locks of sun kissed golden hair; shimmering pearlescent wings grew out of her back, her tiny heart pattering away as she lay unconscious on her side.

Gently Klaus lowered his hands and carefully cradled her in his palms, her delicate head rested in the nook his thumb provided, her long legs stretching across his palms with her dainty feet hanging over his other thumb.

Her head lulled to the side as she expelled a ragged sigh. Her tiny heart began to slow; the golden dust covering her body began fading to a dull shimmer with her skin growing so translucent that he could see her blue veins begin to show beneath it.

Klaus tilted his head to the side, musing that it was much like when a vampire began to desiccate, but in place of the graying skin hers was slowly fading away.

Here he was, searching for the thrill, that zest for life and mocking himself over fanciful thoughts of a spark just magically appearing before his eyes.

The irony was not lost on him.

He made a choice within an instant.

Cradling the small wing woman, a bloody fairy his mind yelled, close to his chest he flashed towards his cabin leaving his art supplies behind forgotten.

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Caroline woke slowly with a groan, lifting her hand to her head hoping to rub the ache away that still buzzed inside her skull as she tried to remember what had happened and where she was.

It all came rushing back in an instant. She sat up quickly, frantically searching for the Guard that had been right on her tail only to have her forehead drop to a furrow in confusion.

Where the hell was she?

She looked down as her felt her fingers sink into the softest thing she had ever touched finding a giant blue pillow underneath her, bigger than even her bed back home in the…

What was she covered with?

Her blue eyes rounded as her shaking hand ran across the soft fluffy white cloth draped over her body. She picked up the end pulling it closer to her face as she studied it; this had to have been made from the softest silk and fur ever known in any of the lands, she thought in awe as she rubbed the piece in her hand over her cheek.

It wasn't lost on her that someone had found her and helped her, just as it wasn't lost on her the sheer size of everything in the warm room that was surprisingly cozy in its simplistic décor.

She had heard tales in her lifetime of wayward Fairies being discovered by small human children. While most were told only to scare the younger Fairies into steering clear of human all together; Caroline still awoke from night terrors of sticky pudgy hands ripping her wings off, some she heard were not as terrifying at all. She had met a few Fairies, who called themselves Outlanders, which her parents would have locked her in her room for even thinking if talking to them. The Outlanders had told her tales of adventure and of the many amazing things humans had come up with. She even heard stories of other supposed mythical creatures such as herself, creatures that humans sometimes called supernatural while others called them demons or monsters.

While she had come across a few humans here and there, not too close though, she had yet to see any existence of these supernatural creatures at all.

Regardless of anything, no matter what or who had saved her, she needed to get out of here.

Caroline glanced around the large open room cataloguing everything around her. She was happy that she was able to read the entire book one of the Outlander's had gave her before her Mother found it and destroyed it. It was a virtual catalog of every human made item he had come across and that knowledge had come in handy a time or two during her journey.

A large lamp was lit behind her, casting her in a warm false light. The fire glowing brightly in the fireplace casts dancing shadows over the walls of the large open room, lighting up some areas while plunging others into pure darkness.

Caroline didn't notice anyone around so she hoped that meant whoever had helped her was asleep.

She carefully crawled to the edge of the plush velvety blue pillow and hopped down to the tall desktop it rested on. She fluttered her wings, happy to find that they weren't damaged from the hard fall. Stretching her arms over her head; sighing as her back cracked and released the pressure that was building there she glanced over her body in relief finding her knapsack still hung from its straps that wound around her waist and over her shoulder.

Looking at her outfit Caroline frowned when she noticed the small tear in her knee length tan leggings right at the side of her thigh and the dirt smudges on her form fitting cerulean dress. She only had one other outfit and if she could get her hands around that Guard's neck for costing her this one, well needless to say it wouldn't be pretty. She brushed as much of the dirt off her dress and skin as she could before giving up and continued her inspection of the room. Looking for a way out, her eyes landed on a bowl sitting out on the countertop across the room.

Her stomach rumbled as she saw the fruit sitting in the bowl, licking her lips she tested her wings one last time before flying across the space and landing on the bowls edge.

Caroline sat down and unsnapped the latch on her knapsack quickly pulling out her knife before settling in as she cut pieces off a juicy looking golden apple.

Glancing around the room as she ate she spied an easel with a large painting resting on its ledge. Taking one more slice out of the apple, figuring it wouldn't hurt to sneak a quick peek, she slid her knife back in its sheath before flying over to take a look.

It was beautiful; she thought with her head tilted slightly to the side as she stared in awe fluttering a little ways away from the painting. The colors of the paints made the painting come to life. It looked as though she could continue flying straight into the glade that was painted there with such skilled hands.

Pulling herself out of her admiring musings, reality set in as she remembered that human hands created this work of art and as warm and cozy as this place was, she needed to leave before that human woke.

Turning around in circles where she hovered a few feet from the ground Caroline grinned widely as she found the moonlight filter in through an open window.

Flying her way to it she landed on the windowsill and ducked under the opening only to find it blocked by…well what it was she didn't know but even her knife wouldn't cut through the strong metal grating. Huffing and stomping her foot she flew back out from under the window hoping to find another way out. Her eyes lit up as she found a much larger window type door.

She could feel the gentle night breeze that meant her freedom blowing through it as she soared closer. Caroline smiled widely as she flew through the doorway before her body crashed into yet another barrier just like at the window.

She angled and spun her body before she hit the ground swooping back up to glared at the offending material with her arms across over her chest, "Stupid humans with their stupid uncut-able junk!"

A husky male's laughter coming from behind her made her gasp and spin around with her arms falling to her side.

"It's called a screen, Love. Reinforced screen to be precise," His nose crinkled as he added cheekily, "keeps the critters from clawing their way in in the middle of the night."

Caroline scoffed, "Well I don't give a flying rat's ass what it's called! It's blocking my way out!"

Klaus grinned broadly, his dimples on full display as he leaned against the counter by the fruit bowl, his legs casually crossed and stretched out in front of him, "Such a temper you have on you, Love." He kept grinning as he cocked he head to the side, "Is that any way to thank your rescuer?"

Caroline flew quickly up to his face, pointing at him with one hand as she gestured wildly with the other, "Listen here buddy…"

"Klaus."

Caroline rolled her eyes, "I don't care what your name is! I want out…of here." Her blue eyes widened as she gasped in shock. "You can understand me?"

Klaus scoffed feeling slightly offended, "I do have ears Sweetheart and I am quite capable of using my intelligence to comprehend words."

Caroline began shaking her head, "No, no, no! That's not what I mean. Humans can't hear Fairies. All you should hear is tinkling little bells."

"Now that I heard when you were beginning chased," He nodded before adding with a hit of smugness, "but to be fair Love, I'm not a human."

Her eyebrows furrowed adorably, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Klaus smirked with a mischievous gleam in his eyes, "Well I could tell you but I feel we should be properly introduced before we start sharing our secrets Love."

"Ugh! Fine! Anything to stop you and all your stupid pet names." She drifted closer to him, her back straight and tall as she announced primly with an air of sophistication, "My name is Caroline."

Klaus bent at the hip giving her a small courtly bow, "Niklaus, but you may call me Klaus."

Caroline cross an arm over her middle, resting the elbow of her other on her open palm as she waved her hand, "Okay we're introduced, now explain what you meant by you are not human."

That mischievous smirk grew over his face again and Caroline had a feeling that he held that expression a lot, "It would be simpler just to show you."

She pursed her lips unamused with his antics before her mouth fell open in shock as dark veins grew underneath his eyes, eyes that turned a golden shade of yellow as fangs dropped inside his mouth.

"Vampire." She breathed. So they were real! She thought in excitement before frowning, "Wait! That doesn't explain why you can hear me. A vampire is just like a human only, well undead. They still can't hear Fairies talk."

"I'm no ordinary vampire Love, I happen to be the Original Hybrid." Klaus's proud voice carried a slight hiss as he spoke through his fangs.

"What's an Original Hybrid? I've never heard of those."

Klaus let his veins recede as he pulled his fangs back into his gums, "It is not a what but a who. Me. I was born a werewolf but turned by my Mother, along with my siblings, turning us into the first vampires that the world ever had."

Caroline smiled brightly snapping her tiny fingers, "So that explains it! It's your wolf that can hear me!"

Klaus looked at her, fascinated by her charms and the wealth of knowledge she held in that tiny little package that he longed to understand, "Just how does my being part wolf explain my understanding you?"

"Because I'm part…I mean, because animals can understand certain fairies."

Klaus narrowed his eyes fractionally; he heard the hesitation in her voice. There was a story there and judging by her quickly closed over demeanor it wasn't a happy story to tell.

"Well let's be thankful for small favors, or well in your case huge favors." Caroline's attempt to joke fell flat as he tried to figure her out, "So, since you can understand me, could you please open this, this thing blocking the door and let me be on my way?"

Klaus felt a strange panic rush through his body, something deep inside him was pleading with him not to let her go. He felt that spark he had longer for, never imagining he would find it in a tiny shimmering, and beautiful, package. He had to find a way to make her want to stay, the idea struck him like lightening, "What's your rush Sweetheart? Surely after what I witnessed earlier today, you should be in no hurry to go back out there and face more of those who are after you." He tilted his head, interjecting just the right amount of sympathy into his voice, realizing as he did that it wasn't exactly an act as he had originally planned. He truly felt the emotion coursing through him at the thought of her being out there, alone, with other's chasing after her.

"You wouldn't understand."

"Try me Love."

Her foot stomped down as she fluttered in the air making Klaus smirk at this tiny little creature's fire. "I told you my name is Caroline. But if this is what it will take to appease your curiosity and let me leave then fine!" She huffed, "Not that it's any of your business but I stole something of his and he was only trying to steal it back."

The nonchalant way she spoke gave her lie away. She had no idea how many years he had roamed this Earth and all the tells he had picked up along the way, "Hmm, no try again Sweetheart."

"Ugh! Has anyone ever told you how insufferable you are?!" Her vivid blue eyes sparked an angry flame that only made him smile larger.

"Nearly every day of my very long life, Love." He cockily announced with pride. "Now quit stalling and answer my question before I decide I'd rather go to sleep. It is rather late after all. Then how will you get that door open I wonder?" He tapped his chin with his eyes pointed to the ceiling as if deep in thought before smirking back at her once more with that devilish gleam back in his blue-gray eyes.

His smug smirk was what pushed her over the edge, "My Father is sending the Guards after me to kill me. Oh no wait! I'm sorry," Her voice crackled in her ire, her tiny hand touching her chest for a moment before it fell to her side with clenched fists, "the man I thought to be my Father my whole life, who it turns out is not my real Father at all, is sending others after me to end my life. And my very own Mother is just quietly standing by allowing it to happen. It's her messed up way of making it up to him since I was a product of her illicit affair. There are you happy!" Caroline threw her arms out wide beside her angrily trembling body, "I'm a half-bred abomination! And my own parents have gathered a group of Fairies together to kill the abomination known as me! I am so sure you can understand the hell that is my life! That you have loads of expertise in this type of situation." Righteous fire burned in her tear filled glistening eyes as she fluttered inches in front of his face.

Klaus felt the air rush out of his lungs; at her fury, at her story, at the sheer agony in her voice. He couldn't believe the parallels between him and this small magnificent creature. "Actually I do Caroline."

The soft tone in his voice and the honest gaze in his eyes along with the actual use of her name, spoken in a way she had not heard in so long, almost tenderly, made her retort die before it even graced her lips.

Her fury flooded out of her with the force of a waterfall, "What do you mean?"

Klaus swiped his tongue over his lips as he contemplated what to say before making his second out of character decision of the day, "I'll tell you all about my very long life, filled with massive amounts of strife, if you stay here and let me help you."

She looked at him with her lower lip caught between her teeth, "Why? Why do you want to help me Klaus?"

Hearing his name fall from her delicate rose tinted lips brought a peculiar ache to his chest, "Let's just say life has lost its shine for me and you dear Caroline have enough light about you to brighten even an old monster's darkened den."

"So this is about you wanting to learn about Fairies then." She huffed not sure why she felt disappointed over that.

"Partly," He conceded, "But we seem to have quite a few similarities, a comradery of sorts. And even though you don't realize the unusual significance of this, I genuinely want to help you survive Caroline." Klaus sighed knowing he could not force this; it had to be her choice. Walking over to the door he pulled the screen open and stepped off to the side waving his hand for her to pass, "But if you want to leave I will not stop you."

She gazed at him in confusion and a little bit of distrust before she cautiously flew over to the door, eyeing him as she passed.

It was the quiet resigned sigh that fell from his full lips that gave her pause.

She hovered there, straddling the line to her freedom and the cabin where Klaus stood. He had this feeling, this look of loneliness about him, this air of mystery and danger. She could feel his wolf crying out, wanting her to stay but the man would not let him ask. Something told her Klaus didn't have many people in his life that trusted him, who stayed only because they wanted to. People who fully and honestly put their faith in him and who were as loyal to him as she knew his wolf craved.

Ugh! She thought to herself, why do you have to be such a sap?!

"Alright fine! I'll stay."

Klaus's head flew up to look at her in astonishment, "What?"

Caroline flew gracefully past him, "But I want a better spot for my bed. I am not sleeping on a desk no matter how soft that pillow is."

Klaus watched in amazement as Caroline landed on the countertop next to the fruit bowl he had strategically left out for her. She began removing the large knapsack from around her body placing it down next to her. The way she stretched her little body eight inch tall body after being relieved of its weight told him it held quite a bit more than he had originally thought.

He closed the screen door behind him before walking his way over to her with a grin, "So, where would a more proper place for her majesty's bed be then?"

Caroline tilted her head up to look at him as he sat on the stool in front of her, grace and poise screaming in the way she carried herself, "You know, you aren't too far off with that her majesty bit."

"Oh," Klaus chuckled, "I'm in the presence of Fairy Royalty am I?"

"As a matter of fact you are." She giggled with her nose pointed high as his eyes widened just a bit. She cheekily added with a wink, "Seems we both have quite the stories to tell, don't we?"

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Klaroline AU Week Day 6. Myths/Legends.

YES a part two is in the works as you read this! I was just short on time and wanted to get this posted. So since I already have Day 7 done and ready, I will be working to get the next part for this out ASAP…along with many other stories to come!

See you tomorrow for the final day of Klaroline AU Week!


	13. Your Wish is My Command

Klaroline AU Week Day 7: Troupes Day.

Mates.

 **Your Wish Is My Command.**

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Caroline was Klaus's first successful hybrid and, as if by some mysterious stroke of Fate, he discovered that all the hybrids made after her were sired to him where she was not. It led him to search for answers only to find that she was, as he had begun to guess, his Mate. But as Caroline liked to point out, she was not _just his_ ; they were each other's Mates. Oh how he enjoyed the blush that stole over her cheeks whenever she would accidentally name them as such.

Throughout all the drama that ensued in the seemingly quiet, but often deadly, town of Mystic Falls, Klaus made it his mission to get to know her just as Caroline made it hers to distract him whenever her little friends needed.

Then came her Graduation.

Klaus had felt confident that the tickets he held in his hands to Rome and the smirk on his face would be enough to entice her to leave with him for the summer.

He was wrong.

Caroline wanted to spend her summer soaking up the sun with her friends and spending her last months at home before heading off to College with her Mother.

 _College._

The idea of frat parties and dorm rooms made his upper lip curl in disgust. A fact that he could not hide from her when he all but spat out what a ridiculous notion the whole endeavor was. She was a _hybrid_ for Christ sakes. Why in the world she felt the need to play the _human_ was beyond him. A point that he did not realize until he spoke it aloud had angered her beyond belief.

The argument that ensued would forever go down in Mystic Falls' history as the odd occurrence of Nature that uprooted and smashed a good quarter of its State Forrest. He took a liking to personally naming it, Hurricane Caroline.

"Ok so you get a thousand years to roam around doing whatever and _whoever_ you please but _me_ ," She had jabbed her finger so hard into her chest that he feared she would draw blood with her sharp pink painted nails. "After only seventeen years on this planet, _I_ have to drop everything and change my plans for _my life_ and that's just supposed to be all hunky-dory?" She had scoffed harshly at him as she folded her arms over her chest shaking her head, "Um no, I don't think so."

He felt a jealous rage at her stress on tasteless point of doing _whoever_ , but besides the fact that he did not wish to argue with her any longer, he had learned enough about her by now to hold back his own anger and truly listen to what she was trying to tell him. Klaus could tell that by forcing her into this he would be doing himself no favors. The more time spent with her, the more he learned about her and he found himself genuinely caring for her. By continuing to push his own thoughts and ideas about how her, _their,_ future should play out, he would be doing nothing but driving her away.

So as much as it pained him, as much as it went against his very nature, he let her go. He let her live her life the way she saw fit.

Though that did not come with certain stipulations.

After hours of shouting, some choice phrases along the lines of him being a self-centered controlling bastard, they reached an agreement that even if it left them both unhappy, the terms were manageable and agreeable.

A twice a month phone call from him to check-in, though he made sure to inform her that she was free to call him whenever she wished. She had scoffed at him at the time, swearing that was never going to happen. His reply to her had carried the undertone of a challenge, "Come on Caroline. Get to know me. I'm willing to go at your pace in this Love; it would be nice if you would meet me in the middle."

She had begrudgingly agreed and in the meantime he hoped to not only raise the number of phone calls, but to entice her into agree to more than the allotted once every three months face to face dinner.

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It was nearing the end of Caroline's second year of college. She couldn't believe how much she was enjoying her life, even if she would randomly, and really at the most inconvenient times, think of Klaus and get a pang in her chest. She would just brush those moments off and continue with whatever she was doing like it never happened.

Their scheduled meetings and bi-weekly Sunday night phone calls ended up fitting in perfectly with her schedule. She would update him about whatever groups she was leading, or taking over as he liked to say with pride, they would chat about their lives for an hour then hang up. When she started calling him a little more often he never brought it up, but she could almost hear his pleased smirk over the phone. But hey! She needed to vent to someone who understood the trials of training new minions and who better than the Original Evil Overlord himself?

Things had been running so smoothly and Klaus had become such a rock for her over these past two years that she almost felt bad for being so short with him lately. But it was so not her fault! The semester was coming to a close and with all the extra studying for her exams the whole thing just left her moody and easily irritable.

She paused in the courtyard near her dorm as a thought floated through her mind. She was surprised she was even entertaining the idea, yet even more so at the fact that she was going to follow through with it.

She was going to ask Klaus if he would like to take a weekend trip with her. A couple of the girls in her dorm had gone to New York City over Spring Break and ever since she was itching to go herself. She giggled as she wondered just how he would react to her asking him to come along. But that would have to wait; she had just spoke with him last night and now was time to study for her next exam. Caroline continued walking making plans in her mind of just when and how she would ask him.

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Something felt off over this past week and her instincts were screaming at her. Telling her to, _run!_ Telling her to, _call Klaus!_ Like a fool she pushed it away thinking it was nothing more than her instincts going haywire during this hectic exam week.

Caroline was walking back from the campus library alone the night it all went wrong.

She heard a march of heavily booted footsteps coming from all around her and before she could even contemplate flashing away they had her.

A group of at least fifteen men dressed in army like fatigues surrounded her; it took her less than a second to realize they were not ordinary men. It took her even shorter to realize they had come prepared for her. Specifically prepared for her being a hybrid, if she could judge by the burn of the vervain and wolfsbane laced chains being wrapped around her, along with the injection of the needles being jabbed through her skin at multiply points.

They called themselves Doctors for some type of weird scientific studies branch called, The Augustine Society. Caroline had been within their so-called _tender_ care for what she knew was over two weeks but less than a month.

She had warned them repeatedly; told them, yelled at them, that they had no clue who they were messing with. That when Klaus came for her, and she knew he would, they would regret the day their parents even thought about having a child.

Some laughed at her.

Others patted her shoulder as she lay weak and strapped to a metal operating table, giving her fake smiles and fake reassurance, "Sure he will Honey."

Caroline quickly found she would rather be messed with by the ones who laughed at her.

At least with them the torture was over sooner rather than the ones with their sickeningly sweet smiles and fake concern. They were the ones she feared coming for her when she came to in her cold dank cell. They were the ones who took a sick sadistic pleasure from the reactions she couldn't hold back.

She would shiver and sob, unable to move from where she had landed when they would toss her in her cell as screams of pain echoed from the rooms above her, down the corridor and to her ears.

She tried to lift her head from the hard concrete floor but after the latest round of torturous experiments she was lucky if she could even lift her finger. She wanted nothing more than to cover her ears to try and block out the sounds. She longed for a peaceful moments rest, but after what she had just endured she knew, even if she managed to fall asleep, her dreams would be fueled with nothing but pain.

They had been trying to get her to shift, she had fought valiantly but finally lost the battle earlier today…or tonight she wasn't too sure.

She laid on the hard cold floor in an oversized ratty t-shirt paired with a pair of baggy athletic shorts that they thankfully placed on her once they were done with their _experiments_ and she shifted back. She scoffed with a ragged breath; yeah, she should be so thankful that they at least preserved her modesty.

Her dull eyes flicked towards her steel cell door, detecting that the screaming seemed to be growing closer, echoing louder than usual in her ears. That was when she took notice that it wasn't the normal screams of pain and suffering that was so typical for this place. They still held the I-wish-I-would-just-die-already quality but the difference was that once the screams stopped there was no labored breathing to follow. All that was heard was a gurgle of a bloody throat and then, nothing.

Heartbeats ceased.

Pounding footsteps could be heard making their way down the staircase that led to the area of the facility that housed the holding cells.

A frantic rustling could be heard from the cell next to hers.

"Gorgeous?"

Caroline weakly turned her head to face his hissing voice, her face scraping the floor as she turned, "Enzo?" her tired voice croaked.

She watched as Enzo pressed his body against the bars of their neighboring cells, yanking and removing the broken bar that he had kept in place so the so-called good doctors wouldn't know that he could move it, just to hold her hand, if only to give her a small comfort. He now gripped the bar tightly in his fist, seemingly ready to take on the world to keep her safe.

"Gorgeous, someone's coming. Something is happening out there. I need you to slide over closer to me." His voice was anxious enough to push her into action. He continued encouraging her with every painful slide she made on the rugged floor. The small sharp rocks mixed in with the concrete gouged her exposed skin with every move. She collapsed a few feet from him feebly throwing her arm out towards him for him to grasp and pull her as close as the bars would allow.

With the last of her strength depleted she looked as Enzo stood looking ready to kill as her cell door crashed open behind her.

"You will not touch her Mate!" She heard Enzo growl, even in his own weakened state.

A scoff was heard echoing through the cell and Caroline felt her eyes well with tears as her lower lip started to tremble at the sound she had only dreamed of hearing. She heard the sound of metal hitting metal before what she assumed to be the bar Enzo was holding clanged against the floor on the other side of her cell.

Arms carefully went around her, pulling her face up into a warm lap. Rough tender hands brushed the sweat and blood matted hair off her face, "Caroline? Love, can you hear me?"

Her eyes fluttered open weakly taking in the face she had wished in her darkest hours would find her, "Klaus." His name was barely above a whisper but if his answering smile was anything to go by she had just handed him the world.

Out of the corner of her blurry vision she saw Enzo sink to the ground beside them in his own cell; relief and awe were clear in his shaking voice, "Klaus? My God Gorgeous you weren't lying! It wasn't just some girlish dream, he really did come."

Klaus narrowed his eyes at the vampire ready to demand just who this man was and why he was calling her pet names but stopped when he felt the dry chapped skin of Caroline's fingers brush shakily against his cheek before falling limply back to her chest. "He's a friend. He helped keep me sane, well as sane as we could be trapped here." Her words were stuttered and clipped with the effort it took her to speak.

Klaus shushed her gently running his hand carefully over her face and hair, "Shh, it's alright Caroline. I'll have the hybrids remove him from his cell along with the others."

Her weak smile of gratitude warmed his tired soul, "Don't kill. Leave them alive. They didn't do anything to belong here."

Klaus bent down to place his lips to her sweat covered forehead, concern rushed through him at the effort it took her to speak, "Shh, worry not. Your wish is my command, My Mate."

With the reassurance that all of the other unfortunate souls that had suffered long before and right along with her would be safe, Caroline slipped into blissful oblivion knowing she was finally safe within the arms of her Mate.

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Caroline woke up in a snap, sitting up quickly in her bed in a panic; her breath sawing in and out of her as her eyes frantically scanned the room looking for the doctors who had just had her strapped to the operating table. A watered down voice broke through her panic as she fought against the hands on her shoulders.

"Caroline. Caroline! Shh, it's okay. It's me, you're safe."

Coming to she looked up into Klaus's worried eyes before she scanned the room to find she was in her dorm room. Looking back in his eyes the dam broke and she all but hurled herself into his waiting arms, tears streaming down her face in relief that it was over.

Klaus slowly flipped them around so that his back was against her headboard, cradling her in his arms with her head on his chest and her body between his legs. He surrounded her, encasing her within the safe shield of his body where nothing and no one could touch her.

Her cries eventually died down to soft hiccups. After a few moments of blissful silence she whispered, "I knew you would find me." She tilted her head to look up into his eyes, "How _did_ you find me?"

His hands never stopped their soothing motions over her back, his fingers combing through her long blonde hair, "I was able to use a witch to locate you here, but no matter how hard I tried I could not find you. Something was blocking you until two days ago. Somehow, though I am not clear how, I knew right where you were and I wasted not another second to find you." His eyes burned into her, his voice was choked with emotion, "I was terrified that if I waited I would lose you forever."

Caroline smiled softly at him as she raised her hand to cup the side of his stubble covered face. His eyes closed at her touch, burrowing his face further into it as his hand latched onto hers to hold it firmly against his cheek.

Caroline's breath hitched at the emotions pouring out of him, she had no idea that she meant this much to him. Oh she knew he cared, that he wanted her, that he seen her as his Queen and equal, but she never thought that he could actually…her thoughts caught up with what he had said, "Wait, did you say two days ago?"

Klaus chuckled, "Yes Love, I did. You've been out for two days now."

Caroline panicked, "What about the others? Are they alright?" She narrowed her eyes at him in suspicion at his smug and downright prideful gaze at her.

"All alive and perfectly fine. Well, as fine as can be expected. I had to have the hybrids clear out your dormitory to house them all." At her questioning accusing glare he smiled softly at her, brushing a curl back behind her ear, "They did not want to leave your side. They view you as their savoir."

"But why me? You're the one who charged in and got us all out." Caroline asked him in confusion.

"True." He nodded his head slightly, his proud smile still prominent on his face, "But they knew I was only there for you. It was your plea for me to help them that really set them free. You have a group of loyal followers, My Queen."

She huffed and pushed his shoulder intending to get up but his arms banded tighter around her, his eyes pleading with her, "Please, just…stay. If only for a little while longer."

She could feel his fear and anxiety course through her straight down into her bones. He needed to feel that she was fine, that she was safe and alive inside his arms. What really struck her was just how much she needed it as well. Not saying a word she settled back into his body, laying her head back onto his chest feeling it rise and fall slightly with his content sigh of relief.

Her fingers drew random imaginary patterns on his chest and shoulder before another thought sparked in her. Tilting her head again she looked up into his relaxed face, "You said you couldn't find me until two days ago?"

"That's right Love." His forehead wrinkled as he thought it over, "One minute I was standing right in this very room, combing through every lead I had gathered on your whereabouts and then the next, I knew instantly where you were." He gazed down to her, the question of how and why bleeding through his blue-gray eyes, " _Exactly_ where you were, deep down in my very bones. I have no idea what changed or how it happened."

Caroline inhaled deeply, licking her lips before telling him softly, "I do."

"You do?" His eyebrows shot up in surprise, "Well do tell Love."

"They'd been trying to get me to…to shift. They…they wanted to…to experiment on a shifted wolf." Her breath came out in stilted puffs as her body trembled in leftover fear, she felt his arms wrap tighter around her, giving her the strength to continue, "I fought it off until two days ago."

Klaus smiled tenderly down at her, "I felt your wolf calling out to me. That's what drew me to you."

Caroline smiled shakily at him as she shifted slowly to sit up on the bed next to him, this time with him allowing her to leave his arms. Exhaling deeply she looked at him as she fiddled with her fingers in her lap, "I want to go Home. Will you take me Home?"

Klaus grinned at her, speaking softly, "Of course Caroline. We will get you packed and get you home with your mother…" He stopped as she slowly shook her head.

"No. I mean I want to go _Home_." She looked into his confused eyes, "I'm tired of fighting this. I have been for a long time now but I was just too stubborn to let go and give this, give _us_ a real shot."

She watched his Adams apple bob as he swallowed. "What are you saying Caroline?" His hopeful whisper brought a shining smile to her beautiful face.

" _You_ are my Home, Klaus. I want to go Home. I'm ready to go Home."

She was suddenly pulled back into his embrace, his shaky growl brushing over her face, "Don't say things you don't mean Caroline. I couldn't take it if you did not truly mean it."

"I mean it Klaus." She whispered to him with a tender smile. "You gave me time for myself, now I want time for _us._ "

His eyes studied hers for a few minutes, finding the surety within their vivid blue gaze his dimples cut his cheeks as he smiled from ear to ear, "Your wish is my command, My Mate." Before crashing his lips to hers in a searing kiss.

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Short but hopefully sweet.

This concludes the final day to Klaroline AU Week 2016. I hope you all had as much fun reading as I did writing. Thank you to all the new followers/reviewers as well as the old for sticking with me!

I'll be taking a day or two to read all the other wonderful stories posted this week by all the amazing Klaroline authors out there. Then I will be back with a vengeance with a new chapter for Above All Else as well as the second part to some of the drabbles here.


	14. Perfect Night of Last Loves Part Two

Perfect Night of Last Loves Part Two.

IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THE SHORT AUTHOR'S NOTE BEFORE STARTING THIS ONE SHOT!

Song: Talking to the Moon by Bruno Mars.

If you haven't read _Perfect Night of Last Loves_ you should read that before starting this. It can be found in chapter two of this drabble series, _Songs of the Moment._

The long awaited and asked for summary for Perfect Night Part Two:

Klaus has an intricate spell to have cast in order to bring Caroline back from the dead. The spell that was lost through time only to land in his lap by Caroline herself. The only supernatural beings with the power and strength to return from the dead have been witches. But with this spell and a gathering of many very special and very hard to find ingredients Klaus will have the chance to bring her back. So far he has found them all, but one. His hope is failing him, for this one seems impossible to find.

And with the Other Side gone…What does that mean for Caroline?

 _Life is darker than dark, blacker than black but when a sudden burst of light comes filtering in, it brings a ray of hope to the (perfect) night. – By Me_

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Klaus dusted his hands off as he scowled down at the sobbing and shaking warlock as his body bounced against the wall he had just thrown the sniveling pathetic man into. "I'm growing weary of all these pointless searches and wild goose chases."

The warlock raised his shaking bloodied hands in hopes to calm the deranged Hybrid, "I…I truly thought you would find someone Kl…Klaus."

"Well you thought wrong!" Klaus shouted through his fangs as he hurled what was probably a priceless vase near the man's head causing shards of sharp porcelain to rain down over his exposed skin. "The spell says I need to find a link to magic in her bloodline. Only problem with that is there are no traces of any witches in her family tree." Klaus's yellowed eyes inspected the cowering warlock with a taunting smirk, "And since you've failed me as all the others did before you, you shall meet a similar fate."

Klaus stalked predatorily to the quivering man, his mind a maelstrom of riotous emotions. He had spent months scouring the Earth, chasing ever lead he could find in order to bring her back. With each and every dead end his hope was dwindling to the point it was hanging on by a single thread, much like his very sanity.

He paid no mind to the ramblings of the man who was currently pissing himself in fear causing Klaus's nose to scrunch in disgust as he gripped him by the shoulders slamming him against the wall with his feet dangling above the floor.

Irritated by the man's constant stream of illegible words Klaus growled, "What in the bloody hell are you blathering about?"

"She is from your vampire bloodline, no?" The sniveling warlock sputtered.

"Yes." Klaus hissed through his exposed fangs.

"And if an Original falls…" The shaking man stuttered out.

His yellow eyes widened as it hit him, "Then they all fall with us."

The dots connected in his mind, he felt unbelievably foolish that he had not figured this out before, that he was so blinded by pain and rage he nearly missed this vital piece to bringing her back. Caroline might not have magic in her bloodline directly but _his_ did and she was a vampire whose origin could be traced directly back to him. The veins crawling across his cheekbones receded, his eyes slowly shifted back to their blue-gray color while still holding a hint of the yellowed madness. Klaus carelessly dropped the warlock to the floorboards, pointing a finger down at him, "Count yourself luck old friend, you just bought yourself more time." Turning on his heels, his long coat billowed out behind him as he left the room.

Klaus slammed the cottage door closed on his way out feeling, if only slightly, less crazed than he had over the past few months since…He quickly shook the dark thoughts from his mind as he felt his bones being to shift as a perfect mix of anger and despair shot through him, which seemed as of late to be his cocktail of choice.

His attention was drawn to the sounds of someone flashing through the secluded forest where the warlock had been hiding himself away. Pulling his body up straight, forcing his bones to realign, Klaus threw his arms wide as a suited figure came into view, "Brother! What brings you way out here I wonder?" A cocky smirk lit his face even as the yellowed mania swirled within the depths of his eyes.

Elijah pulled the cuffs of his long pea coat down as he subtly inspected his brother, "I'm sure you know quite well why I'm here Niklaus." Leveling him with a hard stare Elijah spoke sternly, "This blood bath needs to end. I don't know what has possessed you to ravage your way through bloodline after bloodline of witches and every other known supernatural creatures but it must stop. The rumors are running rampant of the Original Hybrid who has gone mad. And by the evidence I have come across, the rumors are not too far from the truth."

Klaus scoffed with a shrug his rigidly set shoulders as if he hadn't a care in the world, though Elijah could detected even more credence to the rumors in his younger brother's tone, "Worry not Elijah, I have it all under control. Besides," He smirked darkly, "A little mass terror never hurt anyone."

Elijah quickly grabbed ahold of Klaus's arm as he attempted to pass by, yanking him around to face him, "Enough Niklaus! Months ago you left here without a word to anyone only to return not yourself. I've spoken with Rebekah and Marcel; they tell me that you have shirked the duties as King of this City that you fought so valiantly to gain. Instead you choose to tear through the area, terrorize the populace to the point they are all but afraid to come out of their homes. That is, the ones who haven't fled in fear of the Hybrid gone mad."

Klaus growled in his face, "Back off Brother." Trying to loosen Elijah's hold on his arm only to have his grip tighten even more before Elijah pulled him in close.

"Not until you explain to me just what is going on with you!" Elijah yelled with a hint of desperation, needing to know just what it was that was causing such a violent change in his brother, one that bordered on the insanity that he had only seen when Klaus was under the effects of the Hunter's Curse.

"You wouldn't understand." He growled deeply, trying to shake his brother's hold, "Now let go of my arm before I send you into a nasty bout of hallucinations." Klaus hissed as his fangs dropped.

Elijah bared his neck without fear, "Go ahead Niklaus. It wouldn't be the first time. But know this," He said determinedly as he looked straight into his brother's crazed eyes, "I will still be here when they fade; I will continue trying to help you, to figure out what is happening…"

"There is nothing to figure out! This isn't some riddle for you to discover the answer and win a prize! She's dead Elijah!" Klaus shouted as he felt his mind snap. His frenzied yellow hued eyes searched his older brother's face for a hint of clarity, for something to grasp onto to keep him focused even for just a tiny second before he collapsed into his brother's arms, hiding his face against Elijah's shoulder as he whispered brokenly, "She's gone. Her light is gone. She's gone and I may never get her back."

Elijah stood with his eyes widened in shock before he wrapped his arms around Klaus, embracing him in a way that he had not done for so long. He kept his voice soft and soothing, attempting to comfort his broken younger brother enough to understand just what and who he was speaking of. With his hand trailing over his brother's back he spoke with a steady but pleading tone, desperate to figure out just what had his strong and fearless brother so lost and broken in a way he had not seen of him since the last days of their human lives, "Talk to me Niklaus. Tell me what has happened so I might find a way to fix it for you brother."

Elijah's breath caught as Klaus lifted his head to look up at him with a steady track of tears leaking from his eyes that were a mixture of their normal blue but still swirled with hints of yellow and down his face as his lower lip quivered uncontrollably.

Klaus latched onto Elijah's jacket so tightly with his trembling hands at the shoulders that a tearing sound could be heard echoing amongst the trees, "If ever there was a time that I need your complete trust 'Lijah that moment is now. _Please_ brother! You must help me bring her back."

Elijah was more confused than ever but the whimpered sound of his brother's voice combined with the use of the nickname that he had not heard fall from Klaus's lips in centuries awoke something deep within him, making his decision for him. It matter not if he understood, it mattered not if the odds of bringing back this mysterious woman who's death left his brother so shaken it nearly drove him mad with grief. Elijah looked straight into his brother's pleading desperate eyes and his crestfallen face, "You have my trust and whatever else you might need of me Niklaus. Family above all," The small portion of relief in Klaus's voice and the echoing, "Always and forever." told Elijah that he had made the right choice, that his brother needed him now more than ever.

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.

.

Klaus walked out of his bathroom into the darkness of his room exhaling a deep shaky sigh. A soft gust of wind filtered in through the open balcony doors allowing the light of the moon to shine in lighting a path from where he stood and outside to the terrace.

He followed the path as if in a trance, lightly brushing the gauzy curtain out of his way as he stepped out into the night air. From the corner of his eyes he caught sight of the make-shift bed that Caroline had made for the two of them all those months ago bringing an aching pain to his chest. He didn't have the heart to move it once he returned to New Orleans and he was ever thankful for the overhang of the roof that kept it protected against the elements; for it was the last thing she had touched. It was the last place he had seen her, the last place he had heard her voice as he held her wrapped up safely in his arms.

Klaus sighed once again as he folded his arms over the ledge, leaning down to rest his weight against it as he gazed up at the nearly full moon before he started talking quietly, "So the whole of New Orleans thinks that I've lost my mind. They say I've gone mad." He looked down towards the grounds beneath him as he chuckled humorlessly, "Maybe they are right Love."

His watery eyes rose from ground to stare at the moon after a few silent moments, whispering fiercely, "I found the way to bring you back Caroline. And now with Elijah's help, I can see it through just as you wanted. Just as I promised you." Klaus released a despondent sigh when no reply came; maybe he truly was going mad. But like he did every night since his return to the city, he stood out on his balcony talking to the moon, hoping against all odds that she heard him. That she would understand his lapses and his violence over the past few months. But most of all he hoped that within the next few days he would no longer have cause to wonder if she heard him, that she would be standing in this very spot next to him letting him finally hear the sound he craved, her voice.

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Caroline bit back a sob as she realized she no longer felt or saw the first rays of sunlight filtering in through Klaus's balcony doors. The tears she had shed while writing him the letter as quickly as she could while battling against time it self still tracked down her face as she now stood in an empty grey void.

A thick fog and mist swirled heavily in the air around her, bringing with it a strange feeling of displacement and a frigid icy cold that settled down deep within every inch of her. Her hand was still out in front of her, poised as if it still held the pen she had only seconds ago used to write Klaus's letter. Shakily she brought it in closer to her, cradling it to her chest as if it was the last shred of connection she held to the real world.

Wrapping her other arm around her middle tightly she glanced around, trying to figure out just where she was. The dark grey fog seemed to grow heavier and thicker as if it understood that she was trying to see through it. A flurry of voices filled with unintelligible whispers surrounded her, echoing across the void confusing her.

"Hello? Is anybody there?" Caroline choked down a whimper as the distorted voices grew louder, seeming angry at her inquiry.

Spinning in circles she frantically demanded, trying to keep the fear she felt from her voice, "Who's there? Where am I?"

The haunting whispers became a mass of screeching voices all blending together with a force that made her quickly cover her ears with her hands as she squeezed her eyes shut.

Her terrified blue eyes shot open as they all blended into one word that was hissed hatefully into her ears.

 _Purgatory._

A gasp barely had the chance to cross her parted lips before an unseen force shoved her violently into the waiting fog. Her breath froze in her throat as her mouth dropped open in a silent scream.

Vivid visions of her past flashed underneath her eyelids as the icy fog felt like tiny vervain soaked knives slicing through her skin and down into her bones. Every painful memory, every agonizing moment she had ever lived flashed like torturous clips in a never ending loop. She could feel her heart break all over again as tears slid like molten lava down her face but she was unable to scream, unable to move while they all played out in her mind.

Caroline clenched her fist reaching down deep to find her inner strength, forcing her tears away as she grounded out through clenched teeth, " _NO!"_

Pulling herself together Caroline remembered that all these horrible things, her mother's rejection, Damon, her Father and those she had killed were all things that she had already coped with, already worked so hard to be strong and learn to live with.

Suddenly her suspended body was thrown to the ground, the hissing taunting whispers starting up once again.

 _Retched filthy mistakes. Every last one of your kind._

 _The Gods should have done away with you all instead merely becoming bored, allowing the strong to survive and hunt each other down._

 _Let's see how strong you are now, little vile creature._

Caroline suddenly sat up as a roar from a fire was heard around her. Glancing around she found herself back in the woods where she had killed the twelve witches to save Bonnie.

"Yes you killed us Caroline!" A blonde woman shouted from a few feet away from her, a gaping hole bleeding profusely from her chest.

"All of us!"

Caroline's head swung around looking to yet another witch in the circle with the same wound.

"We had families Caroline!" A brunette woman screeched.

"I…I'm sorry…I…I…Bonnie…"

A mocking laugh cut off Caroline's stuttering response pulling her attention to the opposite side of the circle.

"Oh listen to her! She can't even speak!" A witch cackled.

"I had to save Bonnie." Caroline shouted firmly.

"Oh yes, your poor little friend. What about my grandmother Caroline?!" A dark haired male shouted, his face turning as red as the blood pouring from his chest. "I was all she had left in the world! I was the one to take care of her! What happened to her when I didn't come home!?"

Caroline's eyes rounded as they filled with tears, "I didn't know…I didn't think…I…"

"You didn't think what you selfish girl? You didn't think the lives of _our_ loved ones mattered as much as _your_ friend's?"

Caroline's heart beat a frantic tune in her chest as they all began shouting and screaming at her of all that she had stolen from them and their loved ones. She fell to the ground hugging her knees to her chest as she rocked, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." She mindlessly sobbed.

The warmth of the fire was gone the moment a hand on her shoulder shocking her and she gasped in surprise as she was face to face with her Father.

"Daddy? How…how are you here? How are you alive?"

His cold chuckle brought a shiver of dread across her skin. "Did you really think that prison you and your lover put me in would hold me forever? When I have a group of loyal followers willing to help me to end you?"

"I don't understand." Caroline shook her head slowly, "Daddy you died. You died in our house back in Mystic Falls."

"Yes I did. But you," He laughed harshly, "You just couldn't let me go could you? You just had to shove a blood bag in my mouth!" The veins under his eyes spread as fangs dropped from his gums, "You turned me into a monster just so you could stay a helpless little girl!"

It wasn't until he backhanded her across the face that she realized she was no longer in the woods but she was chained to the wall behind her as her body was yanked back to the hard concrete floor.

"But you found yourself another to play your hero didn't you?" His cruel smile was like nothing she had ever seen on his face before. He backed slowly away from her, allowing the light to filter in and land on a figure nailed spread eagle to the wall.

"Klaus?" She gasped in horror at his greyed complexion and the blood that had dried as it trailed down his arms from the nails violently shoved through his wrist above his head. The large manacle that held him tightly against the stone wall was layered with thick dried blood, as were the spikes driven through his kneecaps and his ankles. She had no idea how long he must have been hanging there to make such a large pool of blood that had started to dry around the edges underneath him on the floor.

A weak and painful groan brushed through his greyed chapped lips at the sound of her voice. As Klaus slowly lifted his head, Caroline gasped in horror at the sight of the iron manacle holding his neck in place against the wall. "Caroline?" His weak and brittle voice croaked as he tried to reassure her. "It will be fine Love."

Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head back and forth violently as her Father brandished a White Oak stake from his pocket twirling it in his hands with a malicious grin, "I would say it's a pity that your lover here broke you from his sire line in order to save your pitiful excuse of a life if something were to happen to him but I find a cruel humor to it all." With a quickness that even shocked Caroline, he stabbed Klaus in the stomach with the stake before yanking it out as Klaus bellowed in pain through his clenched teeth.

"Now I can kill him right before your eyes and leave his body to burn and rot beside you before I end your life as well."

Klaus's eye locked onto hers, she was left breathless at the pure unadulterated love blazing out of them at her, the message he tried to pass to her though a simple look. Her insides screamed as her Father's arm came into view thrusting the stake into Klaus's heart, his body catching fire instantly.

Caroline didn't know she was sobbing and screaming Klaus's name until her voice cracked painfully and her ears registered her father's laughter. Her eye's, still swimming with tears, looked around the cell frantically as she began muttering, "This isn't real. This isn't real!" Before she slammed them shut in denial.

"Of course it is Sweetheart. You might not want to believe it but it is as real as you are standing before me."

Caroline glanced up to find herself standing in front of Klaus, the chains no longer holding her down. "You're alive?" Her eyes lit up and a smile began to form on her lips. Her arms rose as if to embrace him before she took in his dark sinister smirk lowering them slowly as she realized something was dreadfully off.

"You didn't really believe that you and your little group of fellow miscreants could put me down now did you?" Klaus chuckled darkly as he opened his arms widely, showcasing what lay behind him, "You may be a bit late to the party," He gave her a wink before whispering ominously, "but I did always enjoy saving the best for last."

Caroline looked around the room in absolute horror, feeling a sickness rise in her gut at the sights around her. All of her friends lay bloodied and mangled around the room. Dead. They were all dead.

"I…I don't understand."

"What's not to understand Caroline? You lot sought to put me down, throw me into a watery grave never to be seen or heard from again. Only it didn't quite work out that way now did it?" His devilish smirk was colder than she had ever seen as he aimed it her way.

"But…but you were in Tyler's body, you…you saved me. Then Bonnie put you back and then you…"

"Mmm yes," Klaus rubbed his chin thoughtfully as if caught up in a delicious memory, "I did quite enjoy the attention you bestowed on my while I was in the young Brutus. The way you moaned for me thinking it to be Tyler," His eyes fell closed for a single second as he groaned, "now those are sounds that will follow me for years to come. Long after you are dead of course."

Caroline swallowed past the bile rising in her throat unable to process what she was hearing from him, "What?"

"Oh Sweetheart," Klaus taunted her mockingly, "You didn't really think that the young pup could bring you that much pleasure now did you?" Klaus tilted his head, "Or is it something else entirely?" Klaus chuckled, "Oh Sweetheart. Did you really think that you meant something to me? That you were somehow special to me when there are plenty of pretty faces that cover this world?"

Caroline began walking backwards with her hands raised in front of her as Klaus started stalking after her like he was the hunter and she was his prey. Her head shaking back and forth, "This didn't happen. That's not how things went. I…" She tripped over something behind her crashing her body to the floor and landing with her legs sprawled over the mass she tripped over. She looked in horror at Elena's bloody and mangled body before screaming, "Elena!"

As soon as her scream left her mouth she found herself pinned to the ground with a hand wrapped tightly around her throat. Caroline's eyes widened as she took in Elena's angry face looming over top of her. Finding her bearings even with as confused as she was, Caroline used all of her strength to throw Elena off her and flashed up to a stand looking frantically around finding she was no longer in Klaus's home but standing in the middle of the woods behind the Salvatore Boarding House.

Elena flashed a few feet away from her, "Not bad. Not technically good, but then again Alaric didn't train you. You were probably too busy butting into other people's business."

Caroline ducked as Elena's leg rose to kick her only to lunge back up to have Elena grab ahold of her throat once more. She fought off Elena's hold, hearing bones crack as she pried Elena's hand off her throat and flung her away.

Caroline's mind quickly caught up with where she was, "God just stop! Elena I don't know what's happening but we've done this already. We're friends, we don't need to fight!"

"Awe, are you trying to make me feel bad for hurting your Mom? When are you going to get it? I don't care." Elena said coldly before smirking, "Maybe you should think about turning it off, then you wouldn't have to deal with all the dirty thoughts you have about Klaus."

Without thinking Caroline lunged at Elena knocking her into a tree, "Just stop!" Hearing Elena gasp and gurgle Caroline pulled back to find blood trailing down Elena's front with a branch sticking out of her chest. "Elena?" She pulled back, her body shaking as Elena turned grey.

"What did you do?"

Caroline spun at Damon's low growl.

"I didn't…I mean…this isn't how it happened." She stuttered as Stefan flashed up next to his brother, his eyes wide with shocked tears before he turned his head slowly to face her with veins webbing down his face in anger.

"How could you kill her Caroline? She was your friend! She didn't know what she was doing! You know she would never have acted this way with her emotions on." Stefan sneered at her as both brothers began walking determinedly towards her from both sides.

Caroline stumbled backwards with her hands raised as she gasped for breath, "I'm telling you this isn't how it happened!" Seeing them gaining on her she flashed backward screaming, "Nothing that's been happening to me is real!"

Damon flashed forward quickly, taking her off guard and lifting her harshly by her neck off the ground as he spat in her face, "No, but it's about to get extremely real."

An agonizing scream tore from her throat as Damon's fist plunged into her abdomen and straight out of her back.

Through all the pain, both physical and emotional, Caroline never noticed how the mist would swirl around her. How it would creep in, changing the scenario and how it would play out for her and those she cared for into a constant loop of the events that had transpired and ones that were manipulated by the mist its self to cause her the most pain and suffering. Causing her to doubt her own mind and lose her grip on what was real and what was not, as well as her grip on her sanity.

It was somewhere within being caught in the middle of the mist as it changed the scene around her yet again that Caroline felt a strange pull, a warm tugging deep within her that was a mix between the metaphysical and the physical. An excruciating scream tore from her throat as she felt as if she was burning from the inside out as the warmth from the pull got hotter as the tugging became more intense until she felt herself being thrusted into a heavy and oppressive realm.

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.

Her body ached in a way she hadn't felt in so long, every muscle, every bone, every inch of her body inside and out felt weighted down and weak. Her ears rang so loudly she could barely make out the muffed sounds from around her. Gradually the ringing slowed and quieted to the point she could hear an accented voice cautiously calling her name like a prayer.

"Caroline?"

She felt something foreign rub against the exposed skin of her arm feeling like a thousand burning needles being drug across it.

A pitiful whimper escaped her throat as she weakly pulled her arm away from the source of her discomfort, rolling her body over to curl on her side on top of the hard cold surface she was sprawled out on, her breath huffing with the effort it took to move.

"Everyone out."

She heard the shaky accented voice demand and the sound of quickly shuffling feet that followed. The rustle of clothing and the soft sound of something hitting the floor in front of her made her crack her eyes open only to whimper, squeezing them shut once again as the light from the lamps in the room scorched her eyes.

She heard a muffled curse before the sound of a rushed wind screamed in her ears. She felt a small amount of comfort when she could tell the lights were dimmed from behind her grainy eyelids. Through her confused and distorted mind she could sense the person had knelt back down in front of her once more, hesitation was clear in his voice.

"Caroline? It's okay, you're safe. Sweetheart, please. Open your eyes. Are you alright?"

The undeniable care and desperation in the voice tugged at a memory lost deep within her mind. Slowly Caroline tested her strength; she had just enough to lift her body up with her forearms to a half sitting position before she shakily raised her head to look at the person in front of her. It took her mind a few minutes to process just who was sitting in front of her on the floor before her eyes widened in fear and her body scrambled backwards weakly across the floor before hitting a wall.

"No. No. No. Please not again. No more." Her scratchy voice echoed throughout the room.

Klaus raised his trembling hands, trying to assure her he meant her no harm, thankful that the spell had worked and she was alive and real in front of him. They had told him she would more than likely be confused after all that she had been through, though they had failed to know just what that was or how bad it would be. Klaus gulped down harshly, no longer sure if he truly wanted to know after his eyes scanned over her features and her body language.

Caroline was terrified of him.

Absolutely and utterly terrified of him.

Never had he seen such a look from her, it was vaguely close to when she realized that Silas had got inside his head making him believe he was dying, but this look…this was so much more. It was a look he had never wanted her to have cause to aim at him. It hurt him deep into his core to know that something had transpired wherever she had gone to put such a look on her face. The pain of this knowledge battling with his pure elation that she was alive in front of him.

Slowly Klaus crept across the floor to her, keeping his movements slow and precise and forcing back tears at her choked whimpers of fear as he stopped mere feet in front of her.

Swallowing past the lump in his throat caused by a myriad of emotions coursing through him, he fought to keep his voice calm and soothing, "Caroline, you know I'd never hurt you. You're safe with me Love."

Caroline squeezed her eyes shut shaking her head weakly back and forth.

"Sweetheart please look at me."

The desperation in his tone made her cautiously open her eyes and look him over. His face was full of concern with a strange combination of pain and happiness. Nowhere in his stance of kneeling on the floor before her did she find even a small trace of lies or aggression which allowed her to relax if only for a moment.

Klaus breathed a sigh of relief at finding her even slightly receptive to him. He shuffled forward, raising his hand slowly as not to spook her as his trembling hand cupped her cheek bringing a choked whimper from his throat at the feel of her cold but firm and alive skin beneath his hand. "You're here." He breathed out reverently, tears gathering in his clear blue eyes as his heart pounded fiercely in his chest. "You're alive. It worked."

Caroline's fears were lulled in the calming presence he offered her as she whispered hoarsly, "You're not going to hurt me?"

Klaus slid closer to her cupping both sides of her face delicately as he told her strongly, "Never Caroline. Never."

Panic filled her instantly, her breath rushing in and out of her lungs as the scenario that this would turn into began to filter into her foggy mind. Her hands weakly clasped onto his wrists as she pleaded with him, "Then you have to leave. Please Klaus, leave." She felt her throat began to close and her chest ache as she thought of what Hell would wait for her next.

Klaus watched in alarm as her blue eyes filled with tears and her body began to shake on the verge of violence, a small part of his mind was confused at just how weak her hold was on him as he could tell she was using every bit of her strength, but he would worry over that later. "Shh Love it's alright." He attempted to sooth her which only seemed to upset her more.

"I can't see this again please! Don't make me watch it again." Her broken sobs sent shards of glass through his stomach.

"Watch what Caroline?" Klaus asked in trepidation as the tears fell down her ghostly pale cheeks.

"You're being n...nice and…and that just means…" She hiccupped and gasped before whimpering, "It means you're going to die again and I can't Klaus." She squeezed her eyes shut forcefully as she tried to push him away, "I can't watch you die all over again when I can't do anything to stop it. Please just leave!"

For a single moment Klaus was left awestruck that the thought of his death upset her so intensely before a blast of red hot rage coursed through him at the thought of just what she must have gone through during her absence to cause such a fierce reaction from her.

Klaus pushed his anger down knowing that with how fragile she was at this moment she would easily feed off whatever emotions he displayed. He slowly wrapped his arms around her, pulling her onto his lap and encased her in the heat of his body hoping it would be enough to warm her frigid temperature. Her sobs soaked his shirt after she finally gave up her weak protests and clung to him in return as he rocked her, whispering soothing words of comfort in her ear as he cradled her as close to his body as he could without hurting her.

Caroline slowly calmed herself down and began actually listening to the words he was telling her; _I'm not going to die Sweetheart._ _I'm the Original Hybrid who can't be killed Love. It's over now Caroline. You're alive Caroline. I'm here Love. I'll not let anything else happen to you I swear it._ His words played in a loop in her mind like a soft soothing mantra long after he stopped talking and simply hummed in her ear.

Her head grew warm and fuzzy as her body swayed along with his gentle rocking and she all but melted into his sturdy frame. Caroline tilted her head back to look up at him to find in shock a trail of tears tracking down his cheeks. Sluggishly she raised her hand wiping away the tears on one side of his face before cupping his cheek gently and gifted him with a weak but brilliant smile before uttering tiredly, "You brought me back. I knew you would."

Klaus huffed a bashful but elated laugh as her hand slid down his face to land softly against her chest, her eyes starting to flutter shut. He leaned down placing a tender kiss to the center of her forehead, clenching his eyes shut tightly as he whispered reverently. "Sleep now Caroline. I'll be here to protect you."

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.

The sound of screaming coming from beside him had Klaus's eyes snapping open as he flashed to a stand in alert attention only to discover Caroline thrashing in the bed enfolded in whatever hellish nightmare she was trapped in.

Sitting down beside her he carefully he held her thrashing body still as he spoke her name in attempts to wake her.

Caroline's eyes flew open searching around her frantically before staring into his eyes as sob left her parted lips, "My mom? I…I killed my…"

Klaus shook his head slowly as he shushed her, brushing the matted hair off of her forehead, "No Love." He told her gently, "You did not kill your Mother or any of your loved ones. None of it was real. They are all safe and sound, just as you are here with me."

It pained him to see her still so timid and afraid. She was afraid not only of herself, but of her very surroundings. She had been extremely skittish since her reawakening and it had taken him weeks of constant reassurance to gain her trust after her return. But slowly she had begun to calm much faster as the days progressed into weeks and the weeks into a few months much to his relief. Though, not that it surprised him in the slightest given just how intelligent Caroline was, she quickly discovered that her after effects were worst when she slept and the nightmares plagued her. Caroline was such a stubborn woman, Klaus had quickly found that she could give Rebekah a run for her money when it came to said stubbornness. Caroline fought her battle with sleep valiantly, but with her body and mind weaker than even a human's that battle was often lost much to her dismay.

Klaus had panicked, nearly ripping the head off the warlock's neck when they had first discovered just how weak and near insane Caroline had been. She had barely had the strength to lift her own body from the bed when she had woken from where he had laid her after the spell was completed. She was more fragile than a newborn babe. Her fangs wouldn't drop when given blood, she could hardly stomach human food and her mind, the state of her mind was what had worried him the most. Caroline's constant state of confusion left her unaware of what was real around her and what was not. In the beginning he had to continuously help her back from the terrors that her own mind betrayed her with even when she was awake.

It was thanks to Elijah's quick hand and voice of reason that stopped him from killing the warlock that he felt had betrayed him.

" _To the best of all of our knowledge no one has ever been brought back from the dead Niklaus. None of us knows just what she went through or even where she ended up with the Other Side's demise. It stands to reason that we must approach this situation with extreme care and caution as to not alarm Miss Forbes any more than she already is."_

Klaus remembered glancing over his shoulder to find that Caroline had weakly scrambled off the bed, her body wound tightly in a ball as she cowered and trembled. He had never felt so ashamed of himself. Here he had promised to protect her and he was the one who was scaring her the most. The preverbal knife had only twisted into him further when she had slunk away from him when he went to kneel in front of her, her weak and feeble voice begging him not to hurt her again. It was the _again_ that struck him the hardest in the gut. In whatever hellish torture she was put through during her death she believed that he had _hurt_ her, _he_ had harmed _her._ Any rage was doused within him as if a bucket of the iciest water covered him, drenching him in pure self-loathing even if he wasn't the one who truly harmed her in any way.

Klaus was brought back to the present when he felt the warmth of Caroline's hand cover the one he had placed on the bed next to her body. His eyes drifted down to gaze into her coherent blue ones finding her smiling timidly back up at him.

"Thank you Klaus." She shifted carefully with a show of just how much her strength was returning to her as she sat up against the headboard of the bed. "I know this is probably getting old pretty quick. With you having to take care of me like I'm some freaking nut job."

Klaus rolled his eyes and huffed in exasperation even as he felt elation at her snarky attitude returning to her, "Enough of that Love. I have told you time and again, I take it as a great honor that I am the one to help you so stop your whining."

"Hey!" Caroline shoved his shoulder lightly before crossing her arms over her chest releasing a huff with her bottom lip pushed out, "I don't whine."

Klaus raised an eyebrow at her as he threw a knowing mocking smirk in her direction.

Caroline let her hands fall to her lap as she rolled her eyes with a giggle that brought a genuine smile to his face as the sound he thought he may never hear again reached his ears, "Okay fine, maybe I do whine just a little. But I'm not that bad."

"Of course not Sweetheart." He replied with a firm nod of his head, that mocking smirk curving his lips once more before they both chuckled lightheartedly.

As Caroline's giggles died down Klaus took notice of her beginning to bit her lower lip as she stared down at her fingers while they fiddled with the ends of her blanket.

Reaching forward he gentle laid his hand over hers to stop her nervous plucking, "What is it Caroline?" He asked her softly.

Her wide childlike eyes glanced up at him as she hesitantly asked, "My Mom's really okay?"

Klaus melted at the pure and honest trust she was placing in him, the way she was depending on him to be honest with her. "Of course she is Caroline." He watched as she breathed a sigh of relief, though the worry was still clouding her eyes. They had come to an unspoken agreement after the first time Klaus had tried to get her to speak to her friends from home. Where he thought it would be a good thing for her, a way to help her heal if she spoke to them and heard for herself that they were alive and well, she had panicked. She was terrified with how little she could grasp reality from her experiences during her time in what he had learned was Purgatory. She had fretted constantly over having another _episode_ as she took to calling them while speaking to her friends and only bringing them unneeded worry.

" _You and your family are the only ones who know that I died Klaus and I would like to keep it that way."_

While he felt it would help her healing along faster if other's knew of what had happened to her especially since she died trying to save them from the aftermath of the Mystic Falls groups actions, it had only took one look from her for him to cave to her desires.

She had come to him when she had died. She entrusted him with the knowledge and the book. She had counted on him and only him to bring her back and so he would not let her down now.

But he would also not let her continue to hide from herself either.

Klaus stood from the bed walking over to his desk to pick up his phone and scrolled through his contacts on his way back before sitting down beside her again. "I think it's time for you to hear for yourself that she is alright Caroline." She began shaking her head in rejection to his suggestion but he was not giving her a choice any longer. "Your mind is all but healed outside of your nightmares Caroline. Your physical strength improves a little more every day. It is time for you to be that fearless woman I know you to be and speak to your Mother."

"Klaus I can't…" She choked out only to for him to stop her.

"You don't have to tell her what happened to you Caroline. You don't even have to tell her where you really are or who you are with, but you have to talk to her. More than that, you _need_ to for your own sanity. Plus I'm sure after so much time has passed she would love nothing more than to hear from you as well. It's been nearly a year Caroline."

Caroline inhaled a deep breath before giving him a firm but hesitant nod of her head, "Okay." She knew he was right. Even though before she had left, the last thing she told her Mom was she needed time away, she had spent months in Purgatory then months healing with the help of Klaus and his family. It was time for her to stiffen her spine and talk to her Mom.

Klaus clicked her Mother's contact information, starting the call and handed her the phone before she could change her mind. Once he was certain she would follow through he made to stand up only to have her place her hand on his thigh stopping him.

"Stay. Please?"

Her meek but hopeful voice sent a shot of soothing warmth through his body. Klaus settled his body more comfortably next to her on the bed with a bashful smile that turned into a beaming one as he half listened in as Caroline and her Mother spoke after months of no contact.

When the dreaded question of where she was and who she was with came about Klaus held his breath, he fully expected Caroline to lie to her Mother but was shockingly surprised as she answered, "I'm with Klaus. I know you might have some choice words to say about that but I'm happy here Mom. I'm happy with _him._ "

It knocked the breath out of him with an audible gasp hearing her tell her mother how she was with him and she was happy. _She was happy with him._ The knowledge of not only hearing her say it out loud but to her own Mother no less made his heart feel fuller by the second.

Whatever else was said between the two Forbes women was lost to him as his mind and heart turned over what she had admitted over and over again. It wasn't until she placed her hand on his chest and he took his phone from her other in a daze that he snapped himself out of his blissful stupor to look down at her as she bit her lip and gazed right back at him.

"So, is that okay?" She asked him nervously as her dainty fingers drew circles over the center of his chest.

Klaus opened his mouth to reply to her only to find he had to clear his throat before asking, "Is what okay?"

Caroline giggled before repeating, "That I stay here? With you?"

"I've told you Caroline, you can stay as long as you need."

She shook her head, "That's not what I meant. I mean yeah, I still have a little ways to go, as irritating as it is, until I am back to my normal pre-dead and pre-resurrected self but I meant after that. I mean, I'd like to stay, with you. If you'll have me."

Klaus's eyes widened briefly before he scoffed and shifted on the bed to kneel beside her, his phone left forgotten on the bed as he cupped her face gently in both his hands, "What kind of ridiculous notion is that? If I'll have you? To quote you Love, Seriously?!" He snorted with his eyes widened comically.

Her loud and ringing laughter was the most beautiful music to ears as well as the most lovely sight his very eyes to behold.

"Oh my God Klaus! Seriously! Don't ever say that again, that's just…no!" She giggled with a firm shake of her head, "It's not even right coming from you!"

He leaned his face down closer to hers as her laughter subsided, "Well then Love, don't say things that are equally as ridiculous and I won't have to resort to such extreme tactics." Her sweet breath washed over his face causing his eyes to fall closed in awed pleasure before a similar look crossed over her face as his breath did the same to her, "You may stay with me as long as you like Caroline. Forever if I have my way about it."

He grinned happily as her eyes widened fractionally and her breath hitched before he tenderly placed his lips to hers.

Her arms wrapped around his neck pulling his body down to lay next to hers as they lost themselves to a series of soft loving kisses before Caroline had to pull away to catch her breath feeling weak, growling softly as her own body betrayed her, pulling a chuckle from Klaus.

Propping himself up on his elbow he brushed her hair off of her forehead, "It's alright Caroline. You'll regain your strength in no time, but until then I think it's best if we take things slow."

Caroline bit back the playfully snippy remark she had paused on her tongue when she seen the genuine concern for her wellbeing flicker in his shining eyes as he looked her over. Smiling tenderly she ran her fingers over her stubbled cheek as she gazed up at him with glistening happy eyes, "Well, we do have forever don't we."

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* * *

What did you all think? I have been slowly chipping away on this one and agonizing over getting it just right. I hope Perfect Night Part Two lived up to your expectations and if it didn't then I hope you still enjoyed it!

Thank you to everyone who has read/review/followed/favorited my works. It warms my heart with each new addition. You can find me on Tumblr also, 3tinkgemini, where you will be able to see my first attempts at making a cover for this Two-Shot.

OH! And I am super excited to say that the story, _Covered in Glitter_ was picked for Drabble of the week last month and is up for voting with three other amazing author's works for Drabble of the Month on Klaroline Magazine. Just google Klaroline Magazine if you are unfamiliar with it. It has so many amazing articles and story recs. I was resently interviewed as well so you should all totally check that out!;)

 **Guest Reviewer on Chapter 13 on November 8** **th** **:** Yes! I am always up for prompts! Funnily enough I have a short story I am working on similar to your request. Though it has Caroline being blind instead. Thank you so much for your review! ;)


	15. A Game For Two

25 Days of Klaroline. Day 3. Secret Relationships.

NSFW.

Part 2 of Two Can Play that Game which can be found in Chapter 5.

A Game For Two.

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Bonnie followed Caroline into the Grill to pick up the to-go order they called in a little while ago.

"So, you've been extra chipper lately and disappearing a lot. Either you're cooking up a scheme to terrorize the cheer squad for coming in second at the last competition, or…" Bonnie eyed her friend hoping to figure out what was up with her lately.

"Two points! We lost by two freaking points bonnie!" Caroline scowled, "If Tiffany would have done the stretches I clearly explained before the match instead of crying over that stupid guy, she wouldn't have gotten that cramp in her leg."

"I know Care you've told me all about it." Bonnie replied dryly before grinning as she nudged her, "Or you're acting this way because there's a new guy in your life."

Caroline clammed up, her body tense as she tried to play it cool, "I have no idea what you're talking about. New guy?" She scoffed. "Yeah sure."

It just so happened at that exact moment Klaus and Kol walked through the Grill's front door causing Caroline to tense even more taking a hold of Bonnie's arm and dragging her to the bar, "Let's just get our food and get out of here."

"Oh my god! There is a new guy!" Bonnie squealed excitedly, "Is it the one that you, well you know," She leaned in whispering, "Acted out that fantasy with a few weeks ago?"

Caroline's eyes widened as she hissed, "Bonnie! Will you be quiet? There are some people that so do not need to overhear this."

Bonnie cast a glance over her shoulder to see the Mikealson brothers taking a seat at the other end of the bar. Looking back at Caroline sheepishly, "Right, sorry." Gnawing on her lip she tried to hold it in as Caroline paid for their food and the waiter went to the back to grab it for them, "So, is it?"

Caroline groaned before leaning in closer, "Yes okay? Now will you just drop it please?"

"Sorry it's just a little strange, I mean you've always wanted to talk about this stuff and now all of a sudden your lips are sealed." Bonnie narrowed her eyes as she took in Caroline's fidgeting form as she snatched the bag from the waiter and nearly drug her out the door and tried to pull them away from the Grill. Bonnie stopped them on the sidewalk in front of the Grill's window, "Oh my gosh! You really like this guy don't you Care?"

"Yes alright! God!" She shouted throwing her hands in the air.

"So then why don't you want to tell me about him? Do I know him?" Bonnie asked in confusion. This was not like Caroline to keep this stuff to herself.

Caroline licked her lips as she caught Klaus's smirk through the window, he was obviously finding her dilemma humorous, "I just, argh, I don't know. I guess I just want to take it slow with this guy. I mean everyone I've dated before has been a part of our group you know? And this guy is totally an outsider and I really don't want to have everyone else's opinions of him shoved down my throat before I can even see if or where this is headed."

"So you have a secret romance on your hands." Bonnie giggled before turning concerned, "Is he okay with that?"

"It was kind of his idea." Caroline rushed to clarify at the narrowing of Bonnie's eyes, "Before you get all uber protective it's not what you think. We both decided this. There's a lot of, well, baggage on both our ends and we thought it would be best if we had time to ourselves before telling anyone about us. If things go south and don't work out it could cause a lot of unwanted tension." She struggled to keep from rolling her eyes at the quiet growl she heard coming from inside the Grill, "Of course he swears that it won't but still, he wants us to be sure and have a stronger bond between each other before we start telling people. And so do I."

"He's not married is he?"

"What! No!" Caroline sputtered, "At least not now anyways."

"He was married before? So he's older. Does he have kids?"

"That's not what…ugh! That's not what I meant. I mean yeah he's older but he is currently unattached we just haven't got into the whole previous relationship thing."

"You might want to talk about that kind of stuff with him, especially before you introduce him to the rest of us."

"Yeah, maybe I'll do that tonight."

"You're seeing him tonight?"

Caroline shrugged, "I'm not sure. I'd like to, if he's free." She stole a quick glance through the window and felt a twinge of disappointment when she found Klaus's back turned to her. "Okay enough of chatting this up out here in the open; let's get out of here so we can eat before our food gets cold."

It wasn't until they were settled in the car and Bonnie was pulling out of the parking lot that Caroline felt her phone buzz in her purse.

 **[ K 3:26 P.M ]**

 _Never married or had any children. I am and will always be free to spend time basking in your company Love._

Caroline grinned before typing,

 **[ C 3:26 P.M ]**

 _Eavesdropping were we? Flattery will get you nowhere with me._

 **[ K 3:27 P.M ]**

 _I beg to differ Love. My flattery earned me the most glorious view of your cheeks filling with an exquisite blush from across the table while I wined and dined you the other evening at dinner._

 **[ C 3:27 P.M ]**

 _Well I seem to recall a few moments of shyness from you as well. Who knew the original hybrid could blush?_

 **[ K 3:28 P.M ]**

 _I have no recollection of such an event._

 **[ K 3:28 P.M ]**

 _But if I did, I would admit that it was only ever because of you Caroline._

She felt a pleasant heat fill her in ways she wasn't sure if she was ready to admit to him let alone herself. So she went with the one heat she could deal with.

 **[ C 3:29 P.M ]**

 _I'll be home alone tonight. How about we pick up that fantasy from the last time you were in my room?_

His response came within seconds.

 **[ K 3:29 P.M ]**

 _What time?_

She bit her lip to hold back the smirk as her body shivered thinking of the growl she knew without even being around him would be caught in his throat.

 **[ C 3:30 P.M ]**

 _8\. You know where to find me._

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A knock sounded at the door precisely at 8 O'clock before she heard the door open, the lock click and the scuffing sounds of his booted steps making their way towards her bedroom.

Klaus inhaled deeply, his eyes nearly closing at the hint of Caroline's arousal already drifting in the air just outside of her door. Pushing her bedroom door open his steps faltered as he took in the sensual view before him.

Caroline's golden curls flowed over her shoulder, a smoldering gaze in her blue eyes as she reclined on her side. Her head was propped up on one hand while her other arm was draped along her side with her fingers playing with the tie to her black silk robe. Her long lean legs left bare to his gaze from the middle of her thighs on down to her blood red painted toe nails.

Running his tongue over his lips, Klaus cleared his throat before giving her a playful smirk as he walked closer to the bed, "Well, it seems flattery gets me somewhere after all." He stopped at the side of the bed, gazing down at her as she tilted her head back to look up at him. Leaning down he trailed his finger over the smooth skin of her cheek, "Hello Love." He murmured before placing a soft kiss to her lips.

"There are rules." Caroline told him sternly after the kiss, pushing him away gently with her red tipped fingernails.

Klaus knelt down next to the bed, placing him eye level with her as he slid his hand over the comforter to twirl the ends of the tie of her robe, "And what rules would those be Caroline?" He grinned devilishly as the catch in her breath and the shiver throughout her body at the husky way he caressed her name.

"No touching."

Klaus curved an eyebrow, "I would think a certain amount of touching would be required for what we are about to do here."

Caroline rolled her eyes before she ran the tips of her fingers up along her body to the center of her breast to play with the opening of her robe there, grinning as his eyes lustfully followed her actions. She ran her fingers up along one side of her robe pulling it down over her shoulder revealing the strap of what she was wearing beneath it. "You were the one that said you wanted to watch." She looked at him pointedly with a grin as she seen the wheels turn in his mind.

As much as he craved to touch her; the thought of being in the same room with her, watching her pleasure her gorgeous body was a fantasy that had haunted him since that night when she had been in the shower with nothing but a door separating them as they both brought themselves to completion. Klaus felt it cock throb in anticipation, shifting his body up he placed an arm behind her back, caging her in and forcing her to roll slightly to her back in order to look up at his blazing eyes.

"If there is to be no touching this evening I want one thing before that rule goes into effect." He whispered seductively.

"And what's that?"

His answer came in the form of his hand splaying across her back pulling her to him as he leaned down. Their upper bodies pressed tightly together as his lips crashed to hers. Caroline's hand gasped the back of his head, holding him close as a moan slipped from her lips onto his giving him quarter to plunge his tongue into her waiting mouth, stealing her taste as they deepened the kiss.

The taste of her mouth combined with the smell of her arousal made him growl as he pressed his throbbing shaft against her mattress. He wanted nothing more than to forgo the rule she had set and by the way she was writhing and pressing her thighs together he could tell she felt the same.

But this was the game she had laid out for them, so this is the game they would play.

Klaus reluctantly tore his lips from hers, enjoying the dazed look about her face and the heaving of her chest. By the small smirk that grew over her lips and the gleam in her lust filled eyes he knew she found him to be in a similar state. Not that he was doing anything to hide it from her. He wanted he to know just what she did to him.

Klaus took a step back from the bed, leisurely toeing his shoes from his feet as she shifted onto her knees with her legs parted in the center of the bed and began slowly untying the robe. His breath left him in hot pants as she allowed the robe to fall from her body with a sleek roll of her shoulders and a sultry look in her eyes sending a spear of white hot lust careening through him.

Her luscious breast were pressed together in a low cut black lace bra, the color giving her skin an alabaster glow in the soft lighting of her room. His eyes tapered down across her lean stomach to the juncture of her thighs that was covered in black lace panties. At the sides of her slightly flared hips were two bows that made him groan in agonizing delight. It would take nothing but a quick tug on both sides to uncover her core to his gaze. He wanted nothing more than to run his lip and tongue over the seams of those provocative panties and then pull on the ties with his teeth, allowing the small patch of fabric to fall from her undeniably attractive body.

He watched in awe at the erotic sight before him as Caroline's hands began skating over her own curves. He was mesmerized by the path she took; her breast he wanted to lick, her sides he wanted to nip, her thighs he wanted to bury himself in and get lost in for as long as time would allow.

Showing more composure than she actually felt, Caroline ran a hand down her thigh as her other arm lifted her hair off her neck allowing it to fall behind her like a golden waterfall, "Am I the only one putting on the show here? I'm starting to feel a little under dressed."

Klaus turned his moan into a hum of contemplation, "Well now, we can't have that now can we?" He smirked at the shiver his heated gaze and rumbling tone brought across her exposed skin. He bent down after kicking his shoes aside to remove his socks, a chuckle falling from his lips at Caroline's indignant huff.

"That's not exactly what I was hoping for."

Klaus straightened his body, grasping the ends of his shirt before pulling it up and over his head, if he added an extra flex to his lean muscles as he moved he would never tell a soul, but by the hitch in her breath he felt pride knowing that it caused the desired effect.

His shirt hit the floor and Caroline groaned at the delicious sight he made. His hair was mussed from removing his shirt, his necklaces that she just wanted to wrap her hands around and yank him to her lips dangled down to the center of his chest.

And oh what a chest it was, Caroline thought, licking her lips as she cupped her covered breasts. Her eyes widened and her pupils dilated as he ran his callused hands over his chest. Her eyes followed his descending hand as it moved over his belt to cup and press against the prominent bulge of his erection hiding beneath his jeans.

Caroline's hands left her breasts, sliding down her body to toy with the ties at her hips. Her head cocked to the side and a flirtatious smile on her lips, "Aren't you going to join me?"

"If I get in that bed," Klaus growled, palming his erection harder through his pants, "I'll touch you and the game will be over."

"Well we wouldn't want that." She smirked deviously as she removed her bra letting it slip from her fingertips to the floor by his feet. Her hands ran at an agonizingly slow pace up her abdomen to cup her full breasts, pinching her nipples between her thumb and index fingers, a low feminine moan leaving her lips at the sensation.

"Fuck." The curse escaped his lips harshly, his breath racing from his lungs as stared transfixed on the way her hands caressed her beautiful full breasts.

Caroline could see every lustful thought that was floating through his mind, the kind of power she held over him caused her inner walls to contract around nothing her panties growing so wet they were becoming uncomfortable.

Klaus wanted to tell her to spend more time on her luscious breast as her hand left them, but this night wasn't about what he wanted, it was about studying what she wanted. To memorize the things that brought _her_ pleasure, so that he could add to them to his own arsenal for when he was finally able to touch her himself. The thought alone had his hips thrusting against the pressure of his hand.

Shivers danced across her skin at her feather light touch of her fingertips as she trailed them down to the ties and began to pull. The sudden flare in Klaus's eyes as her panties dropped to the bed between her knees nearly knocked her over with its desire.

Her scent hit him like a hurricane the moment that tiny scrap of fabric fell away from her. Her fingers carded through the light triangle of hair and on down to her center. He could hear just how wet she was and the sound was met with the clink of his belt buckle being ripped open and his jeans crashing to the floor.

Caroline groaned his name, pushing a finger inside of herself at the sight of him standing, his muscles tense, in nothing but a pair of form fitting black boxer briefs. They clung to him like second skin showing every ridge of his torrid stiff member.

She pulled her hand away from her core and let her body fall back to lay diagonal across her bed. Running her hands over her thighs pushing them open to his gaze, her back arching off the bed at Klaus's growl.

Her sweet thighs were spread wide for his viewing pleasure, and oh what a pleasure it was. Her smooth milky thighs lead up to her quivering pink center that glistened with her arousal, begging him to take a taste.

Caroline let her fingers ghost and glide over her clit and slit teasing Klaus as much as herself. The rumble of his voice layered in want made her fingers shake against her soaking core. Her eyes locked on his hands with bated breath as he hooked his thumbs under the waistband of his boxer and slowly pulled them off his legs.

Her breath hitched and moaned as his hard cock sprang into view and his hand gently cupped and swirled around it from base to tip.

"Where's that lovely pink toy of your Caroline?"

Caroline reluctantly pulled her hand away from her center, digging under the pillow next to her head and removed the toy in question.

Klaus hummed in satisfaction, "Clever girl keeping it handy."

She smirked up at him before lifting the toy to her mouth ready to lick along its large shaft and smaller dual one designed for her clit.

Klaus's eyes widened, his hand left his ridged member to take hold of her wrist, stopping what he was sure she was about to do. He knew if he watched her place that toy in the hot cave of her mouth he wouldn't last longer than a second.

"What are you doing?" He nearly snarled in hunger.

Her innocent eyes blinked up at him, "Well as wet as I am, as hot as you've made me," A slight smirk grew at his rumbled groan and the tightening of his hand around her wrist, "It feels so much better when this is just as wet too."

Klaus leaned down closer to her, fighting with the urge to fling the toy across the room and take care of her himself. He watched her eyes flutter closed as his breath coasted over her face, "Allow me then Love."

Her eyes widened and he would have laughed if he wasn't so bloody aroused, as he brought the toy to his own mouth gathering his saliva and swiped his tongue along its girth covering every inch of it.

As much as this was for her, it was more for his own selfish purposes. If he couldn't touch her he reasoned that at least a part of him would be in her. His tongue hit the spot where her hand had held the toy; a sudden burst of her flavor met his taste buds bringing forth a harsh groan from his chest and a single bead of moisture leaking from the tip of his cock. Klaus couldn't help but run his free hand over his pulsing head.

Caroline's heart beat a rapid tattoo in her chest at the sight of Klaus laving her toy with his tongue. Her thighs clenched together at the thought of the moisture left behind being the lubricant that helped bring her to pleasure.

Klaus eyed her devilishly, clearly reading her thoughts excitedly, as he handed the toy back to her. Thinking quickly she took hold of his hand with her free one, gathering her own saliva and licking it across his palm. She felt his body tremble at the touch of her tongue, a hoarse moan left her lips as her tongue picked up the salty flavor of his pre-cum.

She released his hand before the temptation of pulling him down to her became too much. Watching him through lustful eyes as his hand went directly to his waiting shaft, curling his fist around it, his head falling back with a groan as he twisted his wrist, spreading her saliva over it from tip to base.

Klaus's head snapped up when he heard the telltale buzzing of her toy being clicked on. His eyes held the motion of her hand with the toy in rapt attention as she slid the smaller head over her clit.

Her back ached beautifully off the bed, her breast quivering with the motion as a moan escaped her lips.

His wrist continued moving over and around his pulsing member, his voice low and sensual as he asked her, "What part of me is pleasing you as you stroke my cock Caroline?"

Her head shook back and forth, a ragged moan of his name left her as she continued moving the smaller head over her clit with the larger one pressed flush against the outside of her core, "Your tongue."

Klaus groaned deeply, propping his foot up on the bed with his knee bend and drawing Caroline's eyes to the movement of his hand over his cock, "You taste exquisite Caroline. I've never tasted anything as sweet."

Her hips rolled against the toy, her breath panting out between her teeth from the electric current his husky tone sent through her body as her blazing blue eyes locked with his, "Keep talking."

The clear arousal in her voice brought shivers ghosting down his spine, making him grasp himself tighter in his fist, "That would be a bit difficult with my mouth full of your delectable flavor."

Caroline's body continued rolling against the buzz toy as she hissed through her teeth, "Don't care. I need it."

The thought that she craved the sound of his voice, speaking of all the things he would do to her, that it would heighten her pleasure sent a new rush of ecstasy straight through him making his shaft grow larger. He knew he had no hope of maintaining his composure with his voice, but he was past the point of caring. Let it tremble, let it bleed with his need of her, he cared not. His eyes drank in her writhing form on the bed before him, knowing all the while it was because of him.

"I see the way you press the shaft of the toy against you Caroline. It makes me think that I could have you squirming to get away from me, though I wouldn't let you, as I swirl my tongue over that swollen bundle of nerves, my fingers sinking deep within your hot walls. I'd twist my hand, pumping my fingers into you as my thumb swipes over that tiny rosebud just under your dripping core. Pressing down just enough to make you…"

Her deep hoarse moan cut him off and he watched enthralled as her thighs began to shake as her orgasm crashed over her.

He tightened his grip, twisting his wrist faster around his shaft. Sweat beading down his brow as her screams and moans grew louder, watching in awe as one orgasm rolled into another.

"Greedy girl." He breathed through his teeth, "Fuck my tongue Caroline."

A high pitched broken cry of his name left her lips, "Klaus!"

"Fuck Caroline!" His free hand slammed against the bed as his hand pumped vigorously over his throbbing shaft. His words rushed out of him with the intensity of his desire, "I wouldn't stop Love. I'd press my throbbing cock into your still quivering folds. I'd chase after you faster still, making you come for me yet again."

Caroline's eyes flashed dangerously up at him and he quickly pulled his hand away from his shaft, licking it once more, preparing to follow her relentless pace. He took hold of himself only to have her stay his hand, quite literally, as she only allowed the tip of her toys shaft to penetrate her dripping center.

"Cheeky minx."

His arm shook with the forceful yearning he felt to move his hand as his eyes stayed trained on the short shallow thrusts of the toy. Each time she pressed it only slightly deeper than the last until finally it was pressed into her to the hilt.

Klaus tighten both fists around his cock as he was sure her inner walls were clenching around the softly buzzing toy. He knew from when he handled the thing it was curved to hit inside her just where she would need it most. And by the look of pure ecstasy crossing her face, he knew it was hitting the mark well.

Caroline panted heavily, licking her lips. She knew she couldn't keep up this teasing of him for much longer, "Klaus."

Her soft broken sigh brought his eyes up from her core to meet her heavily lidded blue eyes. He watched her mouth fall open as she pulled the toy nearly out of her before thrusting it suddenly back in to the hilt.

His hips matched every twist and roll of hers as she pleasured herself on the bed before him while he fisted his cock.

Caroline's eyes would fall closed only to snap back open to watch Klaus's hands glide and tighten over his shaft, her mind supplying her with the images of that cock being the thing driving her closer to the edge.

The room was filled with a litany of hoarse curses and ragged sighs of their names.

Klaus clenched his jaw as Caroline began shaking and trembling on the bed, delirious with need as she pleaded with him, "Fuck! Klaus! Please. Please. Please. Fuck me!"

Sweat covered their bodies as they both neared the edge.

"Shit Love." He groaned, voice cracking.

"I'm close. So, so close." Caroline's broken whine echoed throughout the room.

"Come for me Caroline. Now!" He demanded as his body vibrated with the energy it took to hold back his own release.

Their mouths fell open; their lips quivered as both their bodies tensed before their mutual ecstasy took ahold of their forms. Their eyes threatened to close with the force of their orgasms, but both were stubborn and refused to miss a single moment of the other's release.

When it was over Klaus's body collapsed onto the bed, his legs deliciously numb, his head landing gently on her still quivering stomach. His eyes caught sight of a single bead of his release lying on her skin just below her still heaving breast. A wicked smirk grew on his lips as he ran his thumb through it, pressing it into her skin, marking her with his scent even if it was only temporary.

A relaxed sigh left her at the motion and she lifted her hand to card her fingers through his hair bringing a content hum from Klaus.

After a few moments Caroline lazily rolled out from underneath him and pushed herself off the bed, giving Klaus a fantastic view of her backside as she stumbled into her bathroom. He rolled his body onto his back resting his head against the pillows with his arms folded behind his head with a satisfied smile on his lips.

She emerged a few minutes later carrying a damp hand towel and handed it to him with a small smile.

He tossed the towel to the floor, springing out of the bed after he cleaned himself up to scoop his boxers up and pull them on his body as he watched her pull his discarded shirt on over her head.

As she pulled her hair out from the neck of his shirt his hands slide over her hips with a teasing grin, "As adorable as you look in my clothing, what am I to wear home?"

Caroline slid her teeth over her lower lip, "Well I was thinking that maybe, if you wanted to, you could you know…" She trailed off looking down to the floor in a nervousness that, even as he found it adorable, it caused him to hold his breath in anticipation as her eyes flicked back up to his and she whispered, "Stay?"

His silent shock brought a wave of insecurity through her making her pull back out of his grasp, "Its fine. You don't have to. I just thought that maybe since my mom is gone for the night and, well…"

She was cut off as Klaus's hands wrapped around her waist and his lips pressed softly and tenderly against her own.

Klaus pulled back with a fond smile, brushing her hair off her neck and over her shoulder with an affectionate expression, "I'd love nothing more than to stay here with you Caroline."

Her shy but happy smile made him simper with pride before he chuckled, "If I'd have known a simple kiss would calm you so, I'd have applied that practice ages ago."

"Hey!" Caroline shouted indignantly with a shove of his shoulder, "If you're going to be all conceded you can just…"

His lips crashed back against hers.

Resting his forehead against hers he pressed his lips to hers once more before murmuring, "Get into bed Caroline."

She beamed up at him before twisting out of his arms and hopping into her bed. Klaus grin as he shook his head at her playfulness before turning her lights out and climbed in the bed under the blankets she held up for him.

Caroline reached up, cupping his stubbled jaw to pull him down for a soft tender meeting of their lips. Their eyes gazed happily into each other's with soft smiles before Klaus placed a single peck on the tip of her nose making her nose scrunch cutely pulling a chuckle from him before he laid down, pulling her into his arms.

Her head burrowed into the nook of his shoulder as her fingers made nonsensical patterns over his chest.

His fingers lightly brushed up and down her spine lulling her to sleep with him not far behind.

Neither heard the buzz of Klaus's phone before they fell into a peaceful content slumber.

 **[ Kol 11:58 P.M ]**

 _I know where you are Brother and who you are with. If you'd like me to keep quiet I have a proposition for your tasty little blonde. A date with the delectable Miss Bennett would suit me just fine._

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Thank you all for your love and support. Sorry I got side tracked with this little gem but I promise chapter 29 of Above All Else is coming very very soon! I am almost done with it. Like seriously, I know I keep saying that but it is just shy of 7,000 words complete as we speak. ;)

Welcome to all the new readers!


	16. The Girl

Prompt: Can you write something with Nerd!Klaus/Popular!Caroline, I just love nerdy shy Klaus. Lol

Thanks so much! I hope this is close to what you want! And if it's not, take solace in the fact that this is one a Part One of three! ;) Also feel free to send me another ask if there is something you want to see happen! This Part One is just the set-up, the ground work if you will, for the ideas I have.

 **The Girl.**

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Caroline huffed in exasperation as she rounded the corner that led to the Library and computer lab on the second floor of the high school. She was late to class no thanks to Tyler and the ever present argument that they seemed to be having all the time lately. She shifted her backpack on her shoulder and pulled her cheerleading shirt back into place from where it always got caught up with the bottom of her bag before pulling the door open and walking into the library with what she hoped to be a bright enough smile to hide the chaos and pressure she felt.

Caroline groaned silently as she glanced around the room noticing everyone was already paired up and working on the newest assignment. Bonnie tossed her a half grin with her green eyes widening slightly as if to ask, where the hell were you?

Caroline could clearly see the irritation on Bonnie's face. They had spoken before class, and before Tyler had pulled her away claiming he had something important to talk to her about, both girls promised to pair up together for the assignment. But since Caroline was late, due to Tyler, the teacher had forced them to work with someone else.

Though, at least Bonnie was paired up with Stefan. He worked hard and would carry his own weight. Who knew who she would be left with.

"Miss Forbes, so good of you to finally show up."

"I'm sorry Mr. Saltzman I was…"

The teacher waved his hand to cut her off, "I, like the rest of the class, have no need for your excuse. Just go find your partner and get to work."

With as much dignity as she could manage Caroline smiled as she took the paper Mr. Saltzman held out for her. Her blue eyes quickly scanned the assigned subject and the name of her partner written across the top, _Greek Gods. Niklaus Mikaelson._

Caroline hadn't had much interaction with him since he moved to Mystic Falls a few months back halfway through their senior year. Unless you count the one time she spoke to him, welcoming him to the town and school. She had stood there yammering on about all the best places to hang out, who and where to avoid. After about five embarrassing minutes of her talking and him staring at her like she had something on her face, the bell had thankfully rang sending her back to her seat. She had tried every now and again to wave and say hi to him before finally giving up. There was only so much ignoring a person could take.

In the beginning she had tried not to take it too personal. He seemed shy, always had his head pressed between the pages of a sketchbook that he kept well-guarded and he didn't seem to be making any other friends in the few months he'd been here.

Then there was the fact that he moved in with Dahlia. The town's eccentric resident who was a bit too much of a hippy, as the older town's folk called her, for their taste. Caroline could never see what the big deal about her was. She actually envied her. Dahlia did what she wanted, when she wanted and didn't care what other's thought of her. And with everything going on in her life right now Caroline yearned for that kind of freedom.

Rumor around town was that she had a wealthy sister who lived overseas in England that she never spoke to. The rumor seemed to be true when word had spread that she suddenly had a teenage nephew moving in with her. Caroline couldn't help but wonder if the yellowing black eye Niklaus had had that first day of school had anything to do with why he moved here and why his Aunt never spoke to or about her family.

Klaus licked his lips nervously, his fingers fiddling with his pencil as the door to the Library swung open revealing Caroline. Caroline in her tiny snug cheerleader's uniform. Caroline with her bouncy golden curls pulled up in a high ponytail showing off her radiant face.

Caroline Forbes. The most popular girl in the school. The girl other girls wanted to be and the girl all the boys want to have.

And she was to be his partner for this assignment.

His hand rose of its own accord to push his thick black framed glasses further up his nose. He wondered how this would go with them being partners for this assignment. Caroline was smart, beautiful, kind, the type of girl poets wrote sonnets about and she was…so out of his league. Klaus sighed quietly to himself running a slightly shaking hand through his thick mop of curls on top of his head.

He could still remember in vivid details the first moment he saw her. It was months ago on his first day as a senior, he had just shut the passenger door to his Aunt's car and begun the trek across the grassy lot in front of the school when he heard the most beautiful laugh he had ever heard. She had been standing with a group of her friends, her long blonde curls shining in the sunlight as she threw her head back in riotous laughter. In short, she was magnificent. He never dreamed that she would actually talk to him so when she had bounced up to his desk casting a ray of her own bright personal sunlight onto him he was left in awe.

He remembered screaming at himself to; _say something! Anything at_ _all!_ But in the end he had just stared at her like the buffoon she no doubt thought him to be.

And now here he was; trapped in his own personal Heaven that just so happened to be his personal Hell as well. He watched her as she scanned the room, her brows furrowed and her lips pressed tightly until she found him. She gave a small grin that he attempted to return, sure that it had been more of a grimace than a smile, before making her way over to where he sat.

The closer she came the more his palms began to sweat, why on earth did he have to choose a table all the way in the back? One so far off from the rest of the class that they would be trapped, alone, on their own little island with nothing but the bookshelves to keep them company.

If he was more like the other boys their age he would greet her properly. If he could just gather the courage to act out one of the thousand scenarios he had played out in his mind when he was home wishing nothing more than to speak to her, it would go something like this;

 _She made her way to the table in the back of the room, dodging around all the other students in their chairs. A light smile would grace her face as she set her book bag on the tabletop._

 _He would glance up at her from beneath his thick lashes, a cocky smirk painted on his lips, his voice dropping low as he'd say, "Hello Love."_

 _Her breath would catch; a slight shiver would ghost over her skin at his husky murmur causing his eyes to sparkle with mischief. Then she'd greet him in return in that sweet symphony that was her voice._

 _She'd sit down in the chair beside him, allowing him to slide his arm across the back of her chair. He'd brush the strand of hair that always escaped from her ponytail behind her ear, looking her straight in her lovely eyes, "You look lovely today Caroline."_

 _She'd blush and giggle, biting that lower lip of hers like she always does, setting him on fire and then…_

A thud hitting the table knocked him out of his thoughts and drew his attention to Caroline as she huffed and sat down in the chair across the table from him. Her obvious annoyance clearly written on her face brought a cursed blush to his cheeks.

He watched her as she shuffled her things about, pulling out her notebook and pen as she switched between grumbling under her breath and pressing her lips into a thin line.

Klaus took a deep breath, trying to dig deep down into himself to find any scrap of courage and strength he had to force his mouth to work. Clearing his throat and gulping down he managed a paltry, "Hey."

Caroline's head popped up from her notebook, her narrowed blue eyes she aimed at him nearly making him shrink into his chair. She folder her arms across her chest with a huff, "Oh look! He speaks!"

Klaus's eyes widened at the pure venom that laced her tone.

Caroline placed her folded arms on top of the table leaning closer to him as she hissed, "Can I ask you something?"

He gave her a hesitant nod of his head, flinching slightly when she scoffed.

"Are all boys' self-involved jerks?" Caroline gave him no room to respond as she tossed her hands up into the air, "I mean seriously! I say hi, I start rambling on about the assignment and how excited I am since I love Greek mythology and you just sit there!" Her hands gestured wildly about, "Staring off into space with some weird smirk on your face! Do you find it amusing? Me rambling on like some idiot?"

Klaus sputtered, trying to assure her he meant no offence, but she still gave him no quarter.

"Is this like some hoity-toity British thing?" She began butchering his accent to the point where, if she wasn't so angry and spitting fire out of her mouth at him, he would find it utterly adorable, "Oh let's allow the little American chippie to ramble on and on looking like a bloody chump." She scoffed, "Not like I'm surprised. You're just another tool to the book of boys in my life. I tried to be nice to you before. I figured, hey. He just moved here from another country Why not make him feel welcome and offer him a friend. But _no,_ you have to be all…"

Caroline was shocked out of her rant by his low growl.

Klaus's eyes hardened, "I have no need for your pity Caroline."

The harsh tone of his voice as he spat his words at her drew her up short and shocked her for a second. "What?"

Klaus pushed his glasses up his nose harshly, not caring that the nose piece pinched the bridge of his nose before he spoke slower, "I have no need for your pity." He scoffed, "What? Did you think I could be your newest charity case?"

Now it was Caroline's turn to attempt to sputter out a response only to be cut off by him.

"Oh let's befriend the poor foreign boy with the black eye and the broken ribs. He's such a loner maybe I can fix him." Klaus sneered, "Let me tell you something Sweetheart, I have no desire to be fixed. So if we could just get through this assignment we can both be on our way. Me alone as ever and you with your bright smiles and sunshine life can go elsewhere."

Klaus felt his heart pound in his chest as his hazy angry vision cleared and he finally truly looked at Caroline. There she sat across from him, her face drawn and pale, her mouth hanging open and her wide tearful eyes staring at him as if he had grown two heads. He didn't even want to imagine what she must be thinking of him at this moment.

He had no idea where all that had come from. Never before had he ever had the audacity to snap at someone like that. And that he had done so to _her_ made him want to lose his lunch.

He slid his sweaty palm across the table, but with all his fire and courage failing him, he could barely bring himself to feather the tips of his fingers on the skin of her hand. The hand that he had longed for months to touch. The skin he had spent hours wondering whether it would be as soft as he imagined it to be.

"I…I'm sorry Caroline. That…That was rude of me." He flinched when she snorted. Looking down to the table he began to slide his hand away only to stop when she gently placed her hand on top of his. Her soft voice caressed him, soothing him in a way he never thought possible. He focused on her words as a part of his mind rejoiced in the fact that she was touching him, that her skin was just as soft as he had imagined.

"Hey I'm sorry. I guess I never thought about it that way. And I tend to have a problem with saying things without thinking." Caroline's eyes darkened slightly as she thought over the words he had said to her. "But I never thought you needed to be _fixed_." The way she spat the word told him there was more to her derision then just his own heated words, "How about we just start over?"

She slowly pulled her hand off of his, leaving him strangely cold until she aimed that sunny smile of hers directly at him with her head cutely cocked to one side while holding her hand out for him to take.

"Hi! I'm Caroline. Welcome to Mystic Falls."

When he sat there, his wide grey eyes flicking between her face and her hand from under his thick black glasses Caroline giggled. He was so cute when he looked like a startled puppy. The thought brought a slight heat to her cheeks which she covered with a hiss with a giggle through the side of her smile, "This is where you take my hand and introduce yourself."

Her humorous tone and sparkling blue depths brought forth a confidence he was just now beginning to discover.

Klaus had no idea where this new bout of self-assuredness came from, though he thought that maybe it was just his natural instincts kicking in from the etiquette classes he was forced to take at a young age.

But somehow he knew it was all because of her.

He covertly wiped his sweaty palm over his jean covered thigh before placing it in Caroline's waiting hand.

When she moved to shake his hand he rendered her speechless as he turned her hand in his, gently holding her fingers in his palm before bowing slightly over it and placed a soft kiss to her knuckles. She stared at him in speechless wonder as his eyes flicked up at her from over the tops of his glasses, his hot breath coasted over her skin and the combination sending tingles through her that she had never felt before.

"Charmed." His head rose from her hand, "You may call me Klaus."

Their eyes stayed locked, searching the others, his hand still held hers gently over the table as their lips parted on matching gasps. And then the moment was broken by two other students laughing as they passed by.

"Watch it Caroline, Art Boy here looks like he might eat you alive."

"That or she'll give him a stroke just from touching him!"

Klaus's face flushed a deep scarlet and he quickly removed his hand from hers and forced his eyes down at the paper on the table. After the way she had just gazed at him he had no desire to watch as she came to her senses and see the look of disgust flit across her lovely features.

"Hey." Caroline's soft voice whispered between them and he cursed himself for being so drawn to it that he raised his eyes.

Caroline smiled softly as he hesitantly looked at her, "Remember how I said boys are all self-involved jerks?" she grinned deeper as the hesitation left his grey eyes with a hint of relief.

Klaus could feel the blush lessening on his cheeks as he grinned back, "Not all of us are Love."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to see that." She blushed prettily at his pet name.

Klaus gulped down, his insides shaking under her obvious praise. Clearing his throat he swiped his tongue over his lips, "Yes well, maybe we should," He inwardly cursed his stuttering speech, "Get to the assignment."

"In a second. I'm curious, why Klaus?"

"Why what?" Klaus nervously asked feeling panic rise in his gut that she had discovered his secret crush on her.

"I mean your name is Niklaus so why go by Klaus? Why not your full name or Nik instead?" Caroline bit her lower lip at his visible flinch when she spoke his given name and the shorter Nik version. "Sorry," She eyes him sheepishly, "See? There I go again saying things without thinking."

"My given name, as well as the shorter version, carry with them a ton of baggage I'd rather not recall." He replied gruffly.

Caroline could easily read that there was more to the story, and just how much he hated speaking of it. The words, _black eye and broken ribs_ , floated through her mind. Shrugging her shoulders she brushed it off as she knew he wanted her to, "Hey it's no big deal. I mean we all have a ton of baggage we'd rather not have anyone else know right." Her eyes darkened a touch as she thought of all the things weighing heavily on her own shoulders at the moment.

Klaus furrowed his brow, wondering what the perfectly angelic creature before him could ever have going on in her life to cause such a dark and tired look.

"Besides, I like Klaus. It's unique and different." Caroline grinned as she watched his cheeks fill with a blush, she really got a kick out of just how much she could do that to him.

Klaus scoffed, "Yes and different is just so well received here."

"Please! If you came out of your sketchbook every once and a while, smiled with those adorable dimples you have and add in the British accent you'd have girls falling all over you." Caroline's eyes widened as she realized what she had just said, and judging by the full redness covering his face and his open mouth he was just as stunned. Thinking quickly to cover her own embarrassment she shot her hand forward to the sketchbook laying on the table, "What do you draw in here all the time anyways?"

Klaus wasn't sure if his heart was pounding so roughly in his chest over the things that she had just said about him or the fact that she had her hands wrapped around his sketchbook ready to crack it open.

He quickly stood half out of his chair, snatching the book from her delicate hands before sitting back down and hastily stuffing it in his bag. "Sorry. It's…it's private. I don't like showing my work. I've rarely even showed my closest friends back home."

Caroline easily picked up on the fact that he didn't even mention his family; pieces of the puzzle he was began to fall into place even as more holes opened up.

"I get it. It's kind of like a diary. All your personal thoughts go in it as pictures instead of words right?" At his nod she rolled her eyes, "I totally caught Elena flipping through my diary one time, it's not like she found anything I wouldn't want her to see but still! It's like super private. Maybe one day you'll let me see? I mean I'm assuming you are really good since I know the art teacher here has been begging you to enter something for the town's raffle we have at the end of every school year."

"You know about that?" His eyes widened and pleasure filled him that she knew anything about him at all.

Caroline rolled her eyes, "Well duh! I'm on like every event planning committee. Besides, I happen to be Miss Mystic Falls."

Klaus chuckled as she sat up in her chair straighter with an air of pride, "I know."

Caroline blushed beautifully at the intense look he gave her before he bashfully lowered his head, his fingers itching to pull his sketchbook back out and draw this moment before it was gone.

Caroline cleared her throat, knowing they had to get back on track and make some decisions before class ended. "So what would you think about instead of us doing what everyone else is going to do, we try something different for our project?"

Klaus felt himself tremble at the look in her eyes, he had a feeling he wouldn't like what she was about to suggest. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, we have a few weeks to get this done and with everything I already know about the Greek Gods, it won't take long to pull all the information together for the report side of things. And maybe instead of just printing pictures off the internet you might think about drawing them?" She gasped excitedly, "We could present it like an art showing at a gallery! You being the artist and me being the curator!" She couldn't help but giggle as his mouth floundered open and closed as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.

She pressed her lips together at the blatant relief in his eyes as the bell saved him from answering. "Hey, no pressure. Just think about it and we'll talk about it tomorrow in class. Oh! Wait!"

Her sudden outburst caught him by surprise as she began digging in her bag and pulled out her phone. Caroline seemed to be full of more surprises than he originally thought. She reminded him of some type of bird, a hummingbird maybe, always flitting about from one thing to another, captivating those around her with her light and carefree attitude.

After she clicked a few icons on the screen of her phone she handed it over to him. "Just put your number in and I'll text you back so you have mine. That way we can talk about the project outside of school too."

Klaus tried to steady his shaking fingers as he entered in the number to the cell phone his Aunt had gifted him with when he moved here. The shock of having the girl that held his affections phone number still not registering in his mind. His fingers brushed her hand as he handed it back to her sending shivers up his arm that he quickly pulled back, worried that he would no doubt find a way to embarrass himself again.

He watched as Caroline nibbled on her lower lip, biting back a grin as she clicked out a message then turned her phone back off. She hopped out of her chair after placing it back in her bag, sending her golden ponytail swaying around her neck, "There all done. Text me back after school and we'll set up a time and place to meet." A look of contemplative grew over her face, "Though it might be best of we just do our work at my house."

Klaus jolted in surprise as he stuttered, "Your place?"

"Well yeah. We're going to need a good internet connection and the local library will be filled with way too many people for that. Plus I like to focus and seeing that all my other friends will be wandering around not working and then begging me to help them like they always do I would rather be somewhere more private so we can actually get our own project done." She rolled her eyes with a frustrated laugh, "Really, you have no idea how many times that's happened to me. Sometimes being at the top of the class can be a real pain in the…well, you know." She sighed dramatically.

Klaus felt his heart pounding once again in his chest. His mind focusing on the fact that he would be in Caroline's home, with her. Alone. It took him a moment to catch onto something else she had said, "You said your _other_ friends. Are we," He gulped down, expecting her rejection, "Friends then?" He shakily asked.

Caroline rolled her eyes teasingly and smiled, "Will you show me your art work?"

Klaus opened his mouth before closing it slowly with a look that spoke of how unsure he felt.

Caroline pressed her lips fighting back a smile. He really was just so cute when he was nervous. "One day I'll talk you into it Klaus." She said in a singsong voice as she slung her bag over her shoulder and spun on her heels taking one step away from him before grinning over her shoulder, "See you later _friend_."

Klaus smiled widely as she bounced away from him, a bashful chuckling huffing from him as he watched her walk away. His smile quickly fell as reality smacked him in the face.

Tyler Lockwood stood outside the Library doors waiting for her.

Klaus scoffed at his own stupidity. Tyler Lockwood. Star of the football team. Most popular boy in school. Loved by all. And worst of all, he was Caroline's perfect little boyfriend.

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Part Two Coming Soon.

Yes I know I promise an Above All Else update is coming! I had this little story started and waiting for Day 6 of the 25 Days Of Klaroline Event for Tumblr.


	17. End Game

**End Game. NSFW! This is for 25 Days of Klaroline Event. Day 11 SMUT!**

 **The third and probably final installment to the game series, part 1 found in chapter 5 part two in chapter 15.**

I am slowly working on other drabbles for the 25 Days of Klaroline event, my gift for the Klaroline Winter Wonderland exchange and Chapter 30 for Above All Else. Last night I wrote a sneak peek for the sequel for Above All Else that I will add in at the last chapter for Above All Else.

Wow! That's a lot I know!

I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews and support on my works. These one-shots are just a touch easier and faster to put out then the chapters for my multi-chapter story. Building a full on story takes time and a lot of energy, and frustration. These shorter drabbles have the same energy involved but on just a little smaller of a scale that's what makes it a little easier to get them out faster. Since my chapters are normally 6,000 to 13,000 words long it takes at least 4-6 days of writing, editing, filling in and proof reading before it's ready for posting. Add in real life and writers block and it's a cocktail for disaster! Then there are those moments where you sit down all excited to write, like Klaus and Caroline appearing in an episode together excited, then you sit down all ready to go and nothing. It's like when you go into your DVR only to find it never recorded the show or it was a rerun. The excitement just gets sucked out of you.

I'm working hard though to get these stories out to you and I am loving every minute of it! I hope you all feel the same!

I do not own anything but what is mine! Also any mistakes are my own and I am sorry!

Enjoy!

SET UP:

Roughly a month after the events of _A Game for Two_. Roughly Three months after Two Can Play That Game.

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 _Why does everything always seem to come to a head here at the Grill?_ Caroline contemplated to herself as she munched on a French fry. The entire group was squeezed into a booth; the only ones missing were Jeremy and Tyler. She could see Kol and Klaus sitting at the bar with their backs to them, with the occasional look thrown over Kol's shoulder her way, his finger tapping his watch as if to say, _Tick-Tock Caroline. Better get me that date with Bonnie before I spill your secret._

And Klaus?

Well he was sticking to their very strict semi-relationship guidelines of staying under the radar. So in other words, he was doing his damnedest not to turn and look at her while she was doing the same. She could just make out the hiss of Klaus's angry voice as he reprimanded Kol once again but couldn't hear what was being said.

Caroline groaned internally for what felt like the millionth time in the past hour. Bonnie about a week ago had inadvertently spilled the beans about Caroline's secret mystery man. TO say she was irritated would be the understatement of the century.

"Oh come on Blondie! Out with it! Who's this top secret lover that has you all twisted up in knots." Damon looked at her speculatively, "You're oddly relaxed and tense at the same time. Seems to me this guy must not be a hit in the sack as you want him to be."

"God Damon! Do you always have to be such an asshat?" Caroline exclaimed fighting the urge to glance at Klaus, she was sure, even without looking, his back was tense and his tumbler was clenched in his fist.

"Not that I agree with how Damon put it," Elena shot a disgusted side glance at him before looking back to Caroline, "But Care, you've been seeing this guy for what? Two months now? And we haven't even met him. This really isn't like you at all. If this guy is bothering you or hurting you in any way you know you can tell us right?"

Elena aimed such a sweet and sincere look at her with her big brown doe eyes that Caroline melted for a spilt second before she grumbled, "It's been three actually and really? Can't I just have something that is mine? Do I always have to share every little detail of my life with well, everyone?"

"We're not saying that at all." Stefan began in his soft keep-the-peace tone as he placed his hand on top of hers, "You just always tell us everything so when you have something this big and you're keeping it to yourself it just makes us worried about you."

"Seriously! It's not like he's abusive or anything even close. He's been super sweet and we are just taking things slow before we decide to bring the rest of our lives into it." Caroline huffed, folding her arms across her chest.

Bonnie gave her a look of sympathy, "Look I know you are still a little upset that I accidentally told but don't you think it's time you let this cat out of the bag?"

 _Try wolf,_ Caroline huffed to herself before she threw her hands up into the air before thumping them flat on the table, "You really want to know who he is?" She eyed each of them, noticing their looks of pure glee at her caving. She gave a single firm nod of her head, "Fine."

Klaus nearly spit his drink out onto the bar as he heard the determined clack of her heels as she made her way to his side of the Grill. His eyes were wide in disbelief as she placed her hand on his shoulder to force him to turn to face her.

Within seconds she gripped the collar of his jacket, yanking him to a stand and smashed her sweetly soft lips to his; all the while he was still stuck in his disbelieving daze.

Though with her tongue snaking out of her mouth to part his lips that daze didn't last long.

Caroline was kissing him.

Caroline was kissing him in public in front of all of her friends.

Klaus cupped the back of her head tenderly, groaning quietly as her silky strands laced between his fingers. He slowly banded his arm around her waist, pulling her in closely before dipping her upper body toward the floor.

Klaus reasoned that if she was willing to show her hand when it came to their relationship then by _damn_ he would do the same. Everyone here would know that she was his and was not to be trifled with.

Caroline all but melted into the kiss, her heart skipping a beat as he dipped her towards the floor much like it happened in every romantic movie she had ever watched, and re-watched. She felt the entire room slip away to where they only people left were her and Klaus. Her fingers were just sliding up his chest and neck, she was just beginning to feel his hair slip between her fingers when he pulled back and helped steady her on her feet.

Reality set in and Caroline chose to take care of the easiest matter first.

Spinning on her heels she pointed a waving index finger and glared at Kol, "I'm so not pimping my friend out for you." She narrowed her eyes at Kol's flummoxed face, feeling Klaus wrap his arm around her waist to keep her close as her friends staggered near, some in states of shock others looking murderous and betrayed. "You want a date with Bonnie you'll have to work for it yourself." She ended with a firm nod of her head.

Turning to look at the various faces of her friends, she held a hand up as she closed her eyes. "As far as all of you go." Caroline inhaled deeply as she opened her eyes back up, "I'm sure you all have something to say about this but at the risk of making this possibly worse I'll give you all time to process this before we talk later."

Klaus wasted no time in hauling her out of the Grill and away from the entire group. He didn't stop them until they were standing alone at the back of the establishment where he let go of her arm, running his hand through his hair.

"You didn't have to do that Caroline. I could have handled Kol."

Caroline crossed her arms with a huff, "Oh by daggering him?"

She took a moment to really look Klaus over and what she found left her reeling in amazement. As much as he tried to hide it his eyes, and the insecurity blaring out of them, told her everything she needed to know. "Look," She sighed before walking over to him and cupping his face, her voice as earnest as she could make it, "I didn't do this because of Kol. I did this for you, for me, for us." She smiled softly, "I'm tired of hiding Klaus."

He gulped down at the sincerity her eyes pleaded for him to believe. His hands slid across her hips pulling her gently against him. "Your friends might disown you for this. You are aware of that correct?" At her nod of assent he pressed further, knowing she wouldn't like it but it had to be said, "And if things take a violent turn I will not be held accountable for my reaction when it comes to you. I will not allow them to physically hurt you. I would like to be able to do the same for the more emotional side of the hurt they may cause you, but I am well aware that you will not allow that to stand." His eyes stared hard into her own, brokering no room for argument, "But anything more than that you will not stop me from taking care of it in my own way."

She wanted to argue, she wanted to rail about how her friends would never hurt her but she held back and spoke through tightly gritted teeth, "Fine."

She felt his body relax against hers, he had obviously expected a fight and was surprised that she had not started one. "So you know, I know what they might do. I know they'll rant and rave maybe not even speak to me for years but," Her big blue eyes gazed up at him from underneath her lashes, "you're worth it."

A shocked gasp left his mouth as his breath hitched. Klaus stood there with her in his arms utterly speechless at her beautiful declaration. Such a small little phrase, _you're worth it_. It pounded, it repeated, it whispered through his mind like a chorus. He had never been told something so simple, something so _huge._ And to be told so honestly, by the woman in his arms. By _Caroline_ , left him in such an awed wonder that it was all he could think of.

"So my friends might walk away and disown me," She glanced down at her fingers as they played with his necklaces, "will you?" Her eyes chanced a glance up at him, she tried to keep her tone flirty and light, but little did she know her insecurities shined through even as she tried to keep a lid on them, "Now that the secret is out and the thrill of the chase and sneaking around is over? Will you stay?"

Klaus's face softened as he realized just how much his silence had made her nervous. One hand left her hip to card his fingers through her hair before hooking the strands behind her ear, "Yes you thrill me Caroline. Yes I love the chase," His eyes flicked away in a rare showing of bashfulness before quickly lifting to lock onto hers as he whispered reverently, "but only because it brought me to you."

Neither one knew who moved first, within an instant their lips were crashing together, teeth clanking and fingers pulling at the other's hair and head. Caroline's back hit the brick wall with a gentle thump that was quickly followed by Klaus's hips pressing down against hers that sent a low feminine groan spilling into his mouth which brought an answering breathy _"Fuck."_ from Klaus.

Through their lust induced haze they could just make out the sound of distant voices headed their way.

Klaus pulled back, breathing harshly and resting his forehead against her with his pupils blown wide in desire. A mutual understanding passed through them and in seconds Caroline had her legs wrapped around his lean waist, his arms banded around her back as he flashed them in a rush into the cover of the trees of the neighboring woods.

His lips smashed back against hers the moment her back hit crashed into a tree. His hands were everywhere leaving a trail of fire in their wake. Caroline dropped one of her legs to the ground while the other remained around his hip pulling him in closer so she could undulate her lower half against his hardened shaft in attempts to quench the fire he light in her blood.

With heavy panting breath Klaus trailed his lips across her cheek, his scruff scratching deliciously over her skin as he nipped and sucked at her neck.

The feel of their bodies as they rolled and pressed together left them both delirious in their desire for the other. Caroline cried out as his tongue laved and flicked over a sensitive spot on her neck, her hand squeezed in between their writhing bodies to cup his cock for the first time making him groan deeply against her neck sending vibrations through her overheated body.

Reason somehow filtered into his mind through his lustful haze, just enough to whisper hoarsly in her ear, "Bed. I need you in a bed Caroline."

The pure barely tethered lust dripping from his voice had Caroline arching her body against his, griping his shaft tighter, "Yes." She hissed as he pressed harder into her, "God yes."

His hand firmly made a trail up the leg that she had wrapped around him until he hit her hip and curved around it to give a purposeful nudge against her lower back, his eyes full of carnal promises as he stared in her eyes.

The moment Caroline was in his arms, wrapped snuggly around his body he flashed them towards his home. Each speeding step he took caused his shaft to rub just where she needed him the most, her lips attacked his neck as she whimpered, wishing they were in his bedroom already

No sooner did the thought cross her mind that she found herself being gently unraveled from around him, her feet hit the floor of what she could tell from the overwhelming scent of _him_ was his bedroom.

Somewhere in the back of her mind as snarls and growls echoed through the room and clothing was being torn from the other with trembling hands, she thought about how she had always assumed their first time of actually being together would be slow and sensual. Full of soft touches and tender caresses. But once they were both stripped naked and he was tossing her on his bed, his tongue on her core before she had even stopped bouncing, she knew there would be time for that later. This, this fast and rushed pace with its intensity and purely erotic _need_ was _them_.

Their entire relationship was full of pushes and pulls, fire and flames, blood and passion. It stood to reason that their first time actually being this close to one another, _finally_ giving in completely would be just as chaotic and intense.

And then she lost all functions of her own mind.

Klaus groaned against her dripping center and began swirling and flicking his tongue like a starved man with a delicious feast set out before him knowing it was all his.

Her hands flew to the top of his head, fingers grasping at his curls, pushing and pulling him closer as her walls clenched and her core throbbed.

Caroline's back arched off the bed just as her thighs began to shake; his calloused hand pushed her thigh wider before thrusting two fingers inside her seconds before her orgasm washed over her.

Klaus quickly raced his other hand up to hold her hip steady as she began thrashing gloriously on the bed, her fingernails digging into his scalp and the harsh broken cry of his name had his hips pressing deeper into the mattress in hopes of finding the friction he needed.

She had barely came down from her high before with a growl Klaus was over top of her, hitching her leg over his hip as he thrusted deeply into her quivering folds giving her no time to catch her breath.

Her walls were still pulsing as they encased his shaft in her scorching heat. He lost himself in the feel of her depths, snapping his hips, thrusting and twisting his cock repeatedly, mindlessly before reason returned to him and he looked at her as he continued to move.

Caroline lay naked, sweating and damn near writhing mindlessly beneath him in pleasure, her glorious breast bouncing with every quick snap of his hips with their rosy stiff peaks calling to him. With his hand still gripping her thigh over his hip Klaus allowed his body to fall, catching himself with his other hand on the pillow next to her thrashing head. His mouth pressed a kiss and a solid lick to her nipple before sucking it into his mouth making Caroline's hand grip the back of his head tightly as she whined in pleasure.

He switched between her breasts, all the while his thrusting in and out of her folds never stopped, his pubic bone hitting her throbbing clit with every move he made driving her insane. But she needed more.

The sparks were shooting through her entire body; her heart was pounding nearly out of her sweat soaked chest. Her hand that wasn't hold his head to her chest slid down his wet back, gliding easily over the flexing muscles until reaching his ass.

She groaned at the feel of the powerful muscles she found there before digging her nails in, enticing him to move faster.

Klaus's head turned to the side, his cheek resting on her heaving breast as she dug in and pulled at him, his cock pulsating with her unchecked need of him.

He raised his head, meeting her lust filled eyes with a slight smirk. Hitching her other leg around his hips, both groaning at the tightness and fuller feelings it caused, she locked her legs around him just as his hands slid under the pillows to grip the edge of the bed for leverage.

His hips crashed into hers as she rolled her own and thrusted up to meet him. Sounds of skin slapping and cries of passion echoed throughout the room.

It came upon them in a ferocity that was unmatched.

Their breaths caught. Their eyes locked and widened before ecstasy over took them both and they were sent careening over the edge.

His entire body bowed over hers as hers arched up to meet his, his sweat dripping down the side of his face, his mouth falling open with a guttural groan of her name as he spilled inside of her heat just as her mouth dropped open with her voice cracking halfway through the hoarse shout of his name.

Trembling he collapsed to the bed face first beside her, pants and moans still leaving their lips as the pleasure began to fade, leaving them feeling replete and completely sedated.

Klaus never felt this bone deep sedation before and he was surprised to discover that he quiet enjoyed it as he rolled onto his back and felt pure delight as Caroline moved right along with him, curling her body up with his, her head resting on his chest limply as she slowly drifted off.

Her gradual slowing heartbeat and the soft soothing puffs of her breath lulled him into sleep as their arms unconsciously tightened ever so gently around the other.

They may not know what lies ahead for them. What her friends will say, what his family will as well, but as they drifted off both still too afraid to speak it aloud to the other, they couldn't wait to begin their journey together.

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Yay? Nay? What do you say?


	18. Inspiration

**25 Days of Klaroline. Day 13- Celebrities. Inspiration.**

AH. Caroline is a musician.

The song I think of for this story is "Can't be loved" by Elle King if anyone is interested. You'll have to look it up on YouTube to listen though. The eTown webisode number 297 is the best version. I am super bummed that I can't buy it on ITunes.

Thank you for all the lovely reviews and thoughts! I promise I will be answering them back just as soon as I can! For those who review as a guest please know that if you review signed into your account I will reply to you as well! =D

Happy Reading.

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An ear piercing glass shattering scream echoed through the corridors of the Mikaelson Estate. Klaus closed his eyes in silent prayer that the loud and pounding clack of heels would turn in the opposite direction of his room.

He groaned in despair, thinking this was why he had wanted to stay at a hotel while the work was being done on the outdated kitchen in his loft, no self-respecting twenty-five year old man should have to deal with this, when his screaming seventeen year old sister came bursting through his door letting it slam open with a bang that nearly shook the walls.

"Nik! Nik! You'll never believe it!" Rebekah squealed as she threw herself on his bed thrusting a piece of paper and an envelope beneath his nose.

Klaus moved to slap the paper away only to have her yank it back with an appalled look on her face as she screeched angrily, "Nik! Do you have any idea what you could have done?!"

"By the ear bleeding screech and the repulsed look on your face I'd say something that would at least get you out of my room and have you not speak to me for at least the next week." Klaus rolled his eyes with a huff.

"Try ever again! This," She waved the items towards him, "Means more to me than anything! Guess what it is!"

Klaus had barely had time to utter a sound before she squealed again, bouncing in excitement.

"I'll tell you. I won! Can you believe it?!"

"Won what?" Klaus gritted his teeth as he placed his sketchpad on the table next to his bed.

"The backstage VIP passes to Caroline's concert! Right here! In New Orleans!" A look of confusion crossed her face as her excitement stemmed a little, "It's strange really, I didn't even enter. I mean I did of course but my blasted computer froze and by the time I was able to get it started again the window for signing up had closed."

Klaus shrugged his shoulders, "Well maybe it went through and you just got lucky. Regardless you won so I am sure you are pleased."

"Pleased? Try over the moon Nik! I have been dying to see her in concert for over three years now but since her shows were too far away for Mother or Father to allow me to go. This is the first time she is coming to New Orleans." Rebekah rambled on, "Well that's not entirely true. Did you know she actually moved here three years ago and performed in this little backwater bar right before getting signed?"

Klaus opened his mouth to reply only to be cut off by her once again.

"Technically she was signed and then went through about eight months of legal issues with the company before finally getting out of that horrid contract that had her singing that god awful music and then she landed with a new company that gave her more artistic license."

Klaus patted her leg with a grin, "Well I am happy for you little sister." He pulled his hand back when he noticed her puppy dog eyes come out to play, "What do you want Bekah?"

She set the papers gently on the bed before twisting her fingers together, "Well Mother was there when I opened the envelope and she told me that the only way I could go is if I could talk one of you into taking me." She rushed on quickly, "Please Nik! You have to take me! Kol is too much of an embarrassment and I am quite sure Mother would never allow that anyways. Elijah is too stuffy to go with and Finn is too busy with Saga and the baby. Look I know you don't really care for her music but please! I'll help out at your apartment or work for you with no pay just _please_ Nik!"

He wanted to toy with her but the sight of the tears in her eyes caused his own to roll as he huffed, "Alright fine. I'll take you."

Rebekah shouted as she threw her arms around his neck, "Thank you! Thank you!" Before she was bouncing off his bed and running through his doorway yelling, "Mother Nik said yes!" then muttered in horror, "Oh my God what am I going to wear?"

Klaus heard her heels clack rapidly across the wood floor before she slammed her door.

He sighed and stood up to close his door, somethings never changed she was always barging in and then flying out again without closing it.

Once the door was closed and he knew he was safe from prying eyes Klaus let a pleased smirk grow over his lips. Little did his sister or anyone for that matter know, he actually enjoyed Caroline's music, listening to it in secret only when he was alone. He had signed Rebekah up for the chance to win on every electronic device he could get his hands on, deleting the history after of course, just to increase her odds of winning. He had known their parents, who were overly strict on Rebekah in his opinion, would never let her go without one of their siblings taking her. He had known she would come to him for the same reasons she had used to get him to take her. No one ever had to know that he _wanted_ to go. No one had to know the crush he had harbored for Caroline for three years now.

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"Isn't this exciting Nik?" Rebekah exclaimed in awe as her eyes raced around the backstage area rapidly trying to take everything in all at once.

"You're Rebekah right?" A man asked form beside them. "I'm sorry but Caroline asked me to pass on her deepest regrets, she won't be able to meet with you before the concert as planned. She had an incident."

"Is everything alright?" Rebekah was deflated but tried to show her concern.

"Yeah, it's all fixed now but the incident," The man cleared his throat, "ah…took longer to solve than she would have liked." He noticed the look of irritation on the man's face and the shear disappointment on Rebekah's. He pulled a folded piece of paper out of his pocket, "Here, she asked me to give you this."

Rebekah took the note from him, noticing in her excitement to read it that he stood with his hands in his pockets as she looked it over with Klaus glancing over the note from beside her.

 _Rebekah,_

 _I am so so sorry that things didn't work out before the show like we had planned. If you're anything like me it is driving you crazy, I hate when plans fall through. But I was wondering if you and your guest would like to maybe meet me after the show was over? I am always too pumped after a show to fall asleep right away and like to hit the town for some greasy bar food and drinks. If you two aren't busy I'd love it if you joined me. Totally up to you, either way I've told the staff to make sure that you and your guest's drinks during the show are on the house! I also had them place all the VIP merchandise you would have received backstage if this time crunch hadn't happened at your VIP booth._

 _Hope you enjoy the show! I look forward to meeting you backstage after!_

 _Caroline._

Rebekah squealed in delight clutching the letter to her chest. "Yes! Yes! Tell her we accept!"

The stagehand smiled back to her, "Great. Caroline will be happy to hear that." The lights backstage began to flicker drawing their attention, "Well if you will follow me I'll take you to your seats. Those lights mean we have T minus fifteen minutes to show time."

The crowed was roaring and shouting as they stamped their feet hoping to draw Caroline back out for one last song before the end of the night. Rebekah clapped enthusiastically, with Klaus smiling on as Caroline walked back on stage, settling herself on the stool with nothing but an acoustic guitar slung over her shoulders and a microphone in front of her.

"So, I'm going to slow things down for my last number. Many of you might not know it but I actually got my big break right here in New Orleans," She smiled shyly as the crowd screamed and clapped, "Well this next song was never recorded, in fact you'll have to look it up on YouTube to even listen to it. This song means so many things to me and being back here has made me nostalgic. Anywho, here you go."

Rebekah's eyes were glued to the stage singing along with Caroline to the song she had heard many times before.

Klaus watched her with relaxed and peaceful eyes, feeling a bit of nostalgia himself as he heard the familiar song being sung by her angelic voice with her skillful strumming of the guitar. This song had touched him at a time when he felt alone in his own dark thoughts. Just after he had found his girl was also seeing his brother and disgustingly enough wanted to carry on with them both. He had shut himself down and had begun his trek through every and any woman he could find. He had felt lost and couldn't find hope, feeling that no one understood just what he was going through, the battle he carried inside himself. That is, until he heard Caroline singing this song.

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Rebekah and Klaus were escorted through the back halls of the stadium both finding it oddly quieter here than that imagined it would be, what with all the still shouting fans just beginning to file their way from their seats to purchase tour merchandise or head out to the parking lots. They were stopped in front of a white door with nothing but the number three emblazoned upon it. A quick rap on the door by their guide was met with a muffled feminine voice calling, "Come on in!"

Klaus stood off to the side after he and his sister walked in, knowing just how important this moment was for his baby sister, their guide closing the door behind them before his footsteps could be heard echoing down the hall.

Caroline turned in her chair with a beaming smile, "Hey! Give me a second to finish this." She faced the mirror once again adding on the last of her everyday makeup, "I swear it took me fifteen minutes to wipe all the stage makeup off so I can look like a normal person again."

"Sure. No problem." Rebekah mumbled with shaking hands.

Klaus grinned in amusement at his sisters out of character nervousness, she was always so strong and self-assured, to which she stuck her tongue out at him with a huff but he was proud to see that it was just what she needed to let her nerves flee her.

"The show was spectacular tonight by the way." She told Caroline with her confidence returning.

"Thanks." Caroline smiled sincerely through the mirror before spinning and gracefully standing from her chair with her hand out. "It's really great to meet you Rebekah."

Rebekah giggled quietly as she shook her hand, "Likewise." Seeing the look of expectation from Caroline she waved her hand, "This is my brother Niklaus."

Klaus covertly wiped his sweaty palm on the inside of his jean pockets before grasping hers delicately, "Charmed," He bowed slightly with his eyes locked on her as he kissed her knuckle gaining a slight smirk as he heard her quiet gasp, "You may call me Klaus."

Caroline withdrew her hand from his with a curved eyebrow, "So Klaus, how did you like the show?"

"Oh, he will pretend not to like it. I swear he is always ranting when I have your music on repeat but I found him mouthing along with the words and even swaying to the beat more than once this evening." Rebekah smirked back at her brother, delighting in his faint blush.

"So," Caroline folded her arms over her chest, "Not a big fan of my music huh?" She giggled waving him off before he could sputter a response, "I'm kidding. Really. It's no big deal. Did you enjoy yourself at least?"

Klaus quickly regained his composure, "You preform marvelously Sweetheart. I assure you despite my sister's love for embarrassing me; I did in fact enjoy myself immensely."

Caroline licked her lips, feeling a blush rise on her cheeks at his husky accent and the intense look in his almost grey eyes. "Good. I mean I'm glad. Thank you." She held back an eye roll at herself, God! It was like she had never been in a room with an insanely attractive guy before.

Rebekah felt a smugness overtake her as she watch her favorite singer and her favorite brother covertly flirt with each other before clearing her throat, "So we've decided to join you after all."

Caroline turned to face Rebekah shaking her head slightly as she tried to pull herself out of the daze being caught in Klaus's eyes had caused, "I'm sorry what was that?" She heard Klaus chuckle quietly; picking up very quickly that he had an ego the size of this stadium.

Rebekah smiled in what looked like sympathy, telling Caroline that this must be a common occurrence when it came to her brother here. The thought made Caroline harden herself just a little, one could never be too careful and she had no desire to become some macho notch in his belt.

"You offered us to join you out on the town." Rebekah reminded her, "If you don't mind me asking what happened before the show?"

"Bekah." Klaus astonished, "It's rude to ask such personal questions."

"Oh it's fine. Really." Caroline brushed it off with a laugh when she seen the younger girls blush, "I'm always asking and saying things without thinking. And really I don't mind at all."

Klaus gave Caroline a smile of thanks, knowing that his seventeen year old sister tended to speak without thinking most of the time, to which Caroline just grinned with a twinkle in her blue eyes that made him crave of a brush and a set of his paints to capture it on canvas. It was so much more vivid in person than it was on TV or in photographs. She was utterly enchanting.

"Well you know how sports players have their superstitions?" Caroline paused as Rebekah nodded her head, "Well like you heard tonight, I caught my big break here. It was actually this little bar called Muckin' Drunkin'. Tacky I know." She rolled her eyes before looking at the two of them as they started chuckling, "What's so funny? What is it?"

"My brother owns that bar!" Rebekah beamed.

Caroline's eyes widened comically.

"Fear not sweetheart," Klaus chuckled at her face, "I said the same thing about the place a few years back."

"Well I hope you at least changed the name. Maybe even did a few updates? The place was a dirty hole in the wall." Caroline giggled though she looked at him expectantly.

"While it did have its charms, I agree." Klaus snickered, "I did do quiet the overhaul on the establishment as well as renamed it The Original's."

"I like that." Caroline smiled as she twisted her leg back and forth.

"Please overhaul my ass Nik!" Rebekah exclaimed, "You had us all being your little minions to fix that dump up. It's amazing Caroline you'll love it! He even restored the old building connected to it."

"Great!" Caroline clapped her hands. "That's actually where I was hoping to go, just for old time's sake and it leads into just why I wasn't able to meet with you before the show, which again I am really sorry about."

"Please," Rebekah waved her off, "I get to go to school on Monday and tell everyone how I hung out with _The_ Caroline!"

"Honey," Caroline cocked her hip out, "you'll get to show them pictures!" She was instantly met with an armful of the younger girl.

Once the squealing calmed and Rebekah dislodged herself from Caroline's body, Klaus interjected, "I believe you were telling us what happened before your performance to cause you so much strife?"

The fact that he genuinely seemed interested brought a shot of warmth through her, "Right so, It was my last night at the place as a server, not that I knew that of course, the place was nearly empty and we had another girl on staff and I thought," She shrugged her shoulders, "well why not take advantage on the stage?"

She watched as Rebekah listened on enthralled while Klaus seemed to blush with a small knowing smile, "Little did I know that one of the patrons was a record producer, he approached me at the end of my shift and offered me a job. I quiet there on the spot, which I learned later was stupid but anyways I'm getting side tracked," she waved her hands animatedly though the air. "I went in the next day to pick up my tips from the night before. The other waitress, Cami, she was kind enough to hold them behind the bar for me since I left after a not so pleasant _discussion_ with the owner. She ended up handing me two envelopes instead of the normal one. Inside was this amazing drawing of me on stage. It wasn't signed with a name or anything but it had this note that inspired me and I always have it packed away in between shows and displayed in my dressing room." Caroline scoffed, "The new girl, Hayley I think her name is, she freaking lost it! I mean how do you lose something that is in a frame? In my personal stuff no less!"

Klaus felt his insides clench as he listened to her story, his palms pooling with sweat as he cleared his throat carefully asking, "So this drawing means that much to you?"

"Yeah. Whoever did it is extremely talented. And they made me look so beautiful and that message? It just…" She seemed to become over run with emotions, "I just can't go on stage without it. I've carried it with me these past three years everywhere I go. It's like," Caroline waved her hand around in a circle, searching for a way to describe it, "It's like if I could inspire that much creativity, that strange type of connection with a complete stranger than I felt like I had to live up to his expectations." Caroline shrugged her shoulders, "That and it gave me hope. Do you want to see it?" She asked excitedly.

"Yes please!"

"We really should be on our way."

Both Rebekah and Klaus answered at the same time.

Rebekah scoffed, "Please Nik, it's not like the bar is going to close, you are the owner after all."

Caroline took Rebekah over to the framed drawing while Klaus licked his lips nervously; praying to every being out there that Rebekah would keep her trap shut. Who was he kidding; she was never going to let him live this down. Not after all the times he's teased and provoked her over the years, not after blatantly denying even wanting to come to this concert.

Still a part of him couldn't help but rejoice over the fact that she had liked his drawing, that it had meant to much to her that she carried around with her everywhere that she couldn't even preform without its presence. He still remembered clearly what he had written.

 _You have a raw and beautiful talent and a voice filled with a deep and meaningful honesty. Thank you for sharing your gift. I wish you all the luck in the world as you discover your dreams._

He remembered that night vividly, she had caught his eye as she flitted about the dingy bar but once she took that stage and began to sing the same song she had ended her show with tonight, he was entranced. He had quickly pulled his sketchpad out of his bag and begun the rewarding task of creating her on paper. He had overheard the chat between her and the record producer. And while he was happy for her, he had felt deflated that he would not be able to have a chance with her but had decided in the end with the way she had touched him with her voice and talent he would leave her something along with the tip money.

Klaus was pulled out of his reverie when the two women cleared their throats in front of him.

"Are you ready _brother dear?_ " Rebekah asked with her lashes fluttering.

Oh yes, he was royally screwed.

The trio got out of the cab stepping onto the sidewalk a short while later.

Caroline glanced up at the bar with a whistle, "You weren't kidding. If you did all this on the outside I can't wait to see the inside."

"Caroline wait," Rebekah smirked, "You should see how he fixed up the other building first. You know when you walk into that bar people will see recognize you so your chances of taking a look later will be slim to none."

Oh yes, hell to pay indeed, "I'm sure Caroline has no interest in seeing that building when she came for the bar Rebekah." Klaus sneered towards his sister.

"Of course I do! I always love seeing old building turned into something beautiful again." Caroline chirped as she skipped over to the large window, cupping her hands to look in.

"I'll be inside the bar Nik." Rebekah whispered with a grin before walking away.

Klaus sighed, straightening his back and placed his hands in his pockets before trudging over to Caroline.

Caroline's eyes squinted as she took in the art gallery through the window with the soft lighting left on casting a glow in the place. She couldn't help but feel drawn to some of the artwork hanging about the room. It wasn't until she caught a simple yet elegant charcoal sketch on the table directly against the wall off to the side that her breath caught, "Oh my God!" She pulled back to look at Klaus in awe and shock. "This is your gallery?"

Klaus nodded his head.

Caroline's eyes lit up, "So you know the artist of that sketch over there?" She pointed excitedly.

"Yes, I know him. Why do you ask?" He stated plainly.

"I'd know those lines anywhere! That's the artist that made my drawing. Do you think you could introduce us? I've always held this hope that someday I'd get a chance to meet him, to thank him."

Klaus inhaled sharply, holding it in for a moment as he made a decision, before exhaling with a bashful chuckle, "You've already met him Caroline."

Her face pinched adorably in confusion, "Huh? What do you mean?"

Klaus lowered his head slightly, staring at her with his deep meaningful eyes, "I think you can figure it out Sweetheart."

It took only seconds for it to click and Klaus knew the instant that it did when her mouth dropped open with a quiet shocked gasp and her beautiful blue eyes widened slightly.

"You? It was you?"

"Guilty as charged Sweetheart." Klaus smiled watching what looked to be embarrassment cover her beautiful face, wanting nothing more in that moment than to reassure her. "I have to admit, I find it utterly enchanting that you carry with you wherever you go. That the moment _you_ inspired _me_ , _I_ was able to do the same for _you_." Klaus cocked his head to the side, "Is this what you feel through your fans and music? This strange feeling of…" Klaus trailed off as he couldn't quite put a word to the emotion he felt.

"Humbling." Caroline said softly drawing his eyes back to hers, "I think what you are looking for is humbling. That entire indescribable feeling of a connection to others that leaves you completely breathless. It's very humbling isn't Klaus?"

The soft way she spoke his name and the tender look of understanding in her eyes made his heart pick up its pace within his chest. "Yeah. It is." Staring into her eyes he felt like he could fall in them forever, much like he did three years ago when he missed his chance but she was able to take hers and follow her dreams.

He wasn't missing this chance again.

Klaus offered his arm to her with a sly smile and a twinkle in his eyes, "How about we get you that drink, along with that food you wanted."

Caroline's breath caught at his smile and the confidence bleeding off of him. She had waited for this moment for years. She had fantasized about just who her secret artist and how they would meet. But in none of them did any of their chance meetings turn out like this.

Caroline smiled sweetly at him, taking his arm before they started walking back towards the bar, "I hope you at least kept the chili cheese fries on the menu. Those were to die for!"

"While I did add more shall we say _refined_ items to the menu there is one thing I thought prudent." Klaus smirked as he reached forward to open the door.

"Oh, and what's that?" Caroline asked him flirtatiously.

"Never let go of a good thing."

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Ta-Da! Hope you enjoyed it.


	19. Sequins and Blood Lace and Fangs

**25 Days of Klaroline Day 14- Mafia.**

 **Sequins and Blood. Lace and Fangs.**

 **Set in Chicago in 1920. All Canon as far as Klaus is concerned.**

This one got away from me a lot! So much so I have to break it down into two parts! Part Two is almost done and will be up very soon!

So my plans as of now; I am finishing this one up and then that is it for the 25 Days of Klaroline event outside of Christmas Day. I am going to finish working on Above all Else, my secret Santa for my giftee. I am also not going to post any new storylines or drabbles until I get all the second/third parts done to the ones already posted. I have so many projects going and I don't want to disappoint you all!

If all goes well the coming weeks will be filled with finished stories and sequels! Wish me luck!

Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing! Following and adding as a favorite! As always, your support means everything to me!

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"I'm sorry little sister." Klaus whispered as her body began to grey due to the dagger he held in her chest. "But I can't have you running off with Stefan and getting caught by Mikael."

His head snapped up at the sound of clacking heels, catching a whiff of a sweet perfume he couldn't name and a hint of cigarette smoke. He flashed to his feet standing protectively in front of his baby sister's desiccated body as a figure walked slowly into the warehouse.

The dim light filtering down from the swing overhead light was just enough to make of a shadow of a female form even to his enhanced eyesight.

The woman emerged further into the warehouse, the light hitting her from the ground up starting with her feet that were incased in golden high heels. Her long milky legs were next, her dress teasingly revealed her legs from her knees down due to two slits on its front with every step she took. Her body was wrapped in a large open dark fur coat showing off her stunning body in her form fitting golden dress to his gaze with its low cut décolletage.

Despite the situation Klaus, ever a fan of beauty, was struck with awe as her delicate and stunning face came into view. Her large blue eyes, framed by thick black lashes gave her an air of innocence while her red tinted lips wrapped sensually around the end of her cigarette adding in just the right amount of carnal flair.

If he wasn't so pressed for time he would have enjoyed nothing more than to have that glorious body of hers wrapped tightly around his own. But as it was his luck, he would not be as fortunate as to have her this night.

Klaus stuck his hands in the pockets of his trousers, walking forward with a shuffling step and a light grin, hoping to deter her from seeing his sister's body; he would hate to have to kill such a thing of beauty.

"I'm sorry Sweetheart, but this is a private storage area." He grinned flirtatiously, hoping to disarm her.

The breathtaking woman before him giggled sweetly with an air of innocence as she put out her cigarette with her shoe, "Oh I know." She flicked those wide crystal blue eyes at him from under her lashes with a slight tilt to her head.

Klaus chuckled along with her, "Well then," He tilted his head in question.

"Caroline." She beamed at him, her smile so infectious he couldn't help but feel one grow naturally over his lips.

"Well then, Caroline," He purred her name. Just because he couldn't take her didn't mean he couldn't flirt with her, "We must get you out of here before the owner shows and you get yourself into trouble."

Caroline giggled softly behind her hand drawing an acute interest to his grey eyes, "Well that's just silly. Why would I get myself into trouble when I own this warehouse Mr. Mikaelson?"

His body tensed, his face turned to stone as all emotions fled from his expression at the sound of his name, "And just how is it you know who I am?"

"Oh I know a lot about you Mr. Mikaelson." The blonde Goddess, who was treading on thin ice said with a smug smile.

"Obviously not enough or you would know not to tempt the beast." Klaus snarled, his senses quickly scanning the area finding nothing but human heartbeats.

Caroline arched a finely scalped eyebrow, "Oh I know plenty. Enough to know that your _teeth_ won't be biting me this night."

Klaus flashed forward, grasping her by her upper arms and pinning her against the far wall, "Really Love? And how do you reckon that I wonder?" He leaned in closer, surprised by the lack of fear he found coming off her, "You know what I am so that must mean you are aware that I could kill you now before you could even bat your pretty little eyelashes."

Caroline titled her head to the side, purposefully fluttering her lashes as she spoke staring him straight in his eyes. "But you won't."

"Oh?" Klaus blinked in shear surprise at this woman's backbone, "And just why would that be?"

Caroline craned her neck closer to him, her intoxicating breath washing over him, "Because I have a proposition that I am very sure you won't refuse."

Klaus chuckled as he heard footsteps stop directly behind him and guns cocking to the ready. "I can smell the wooden bullets in the guns Love. You should know that won't kill me."

Caroline smiled widely, "Oh I know, but it will hurt like the dickens. Though," Her eyes flickered over the parts of his body she could see, "It would be a shame to ruin the nice suit that you cut so well." Caroline smirked as she watched the interest flair back up in his eyes once more. She arched her neck to the side to glance over his shoulder, all traces of the flirt were gone from her voice, leaving her sounding cold and demanding. "Steady boys and step back, Mr. Mikaelson here means me no harm." She pulled her head back to look directly at him, grinning sweetly and fluttering her lashes once again, "Do you?"

Klaus slowly released her body, impressed that she still showed no signs of fright. He tossed his arms out to the sides, "Color me intrigued Miss Caroline…"

Caroline knew he was fishing for her surname and she had hoped to leave this part out for a while longer but knew she had no choice but to give it up. Though, if she played her cards right, and she always did, they would both walk out of here with more than they had come in with. She drew herself up tall speaking proudly, "Forbes. Caroline Forbes."

Recognition flashed through his eyes at her name. Klaus clasped his hands behind his back as the two walked circles around each other, "And what pray tell does the elusive daughter of the recently deceased mob boss want with little old me I wonder?" He leaned in closer on his next pass whispering huskily in her ear, feeling quite pleased with her shiver his low voice brought, "Are you looking for a little more danger between your sheets? For that you could have just bought me a drink Love." He looked at her mockingly, "No need for you to put on this show."

Klaus flicked his eyes covertly at the two men noticing the dark leer sent towards Caroline from one of them; a look he strangely found he did not like in the slightest. He filed that reaction away from later.

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest with a scoff, "No. I'm not one of your loose girls Mr. Mikaelson I assure you. I am a Lady with class not trash." She was so sick of men, no matter their age, thinking a woman was only good for one thing and one thing only. By that way of thinking it meant that if she knew what she wanted and knew how to get it, it made her a woman of loose morals. That sort of thinking had been reason enough to have some men killed.

Klaus bowed mockingly at the waist, "My apologies Miss Forbes, I seemed to have lost my way for a moment. I forgot I was in the presence of a Lady." He watched as a fire lit in her eyes and her jaw clenched at his jeering. Oh, she was simply exquisite. He folded his hands behind his back once again, "Forgive me, you spoke of a proposition?"

Here comes the hard part, Caroline thought with a swipe of her tongue over her lips before she drew in a deep breath, "I am in need of a body guard."

Klaus's eyes widened comically before he burst into riotous laughter, "You cannot be serious?" She lifted that eyebrow of hers once more, crossing her arms with a flare to her hip. "My God you are!" He sobered his laughter and shook his head with his hands spread out before him, "Look Love, I'm not a muscle for hire or rather, fangs for hire." Klaus glanced behind him at the two men, "But my advice about those two over there; those goons couldn't protect you from a fruit fly."

Caroline narrowed her eyes making Klaus believe that she knew what he was trying to tell her completely, making his respect for her intelligence grow. "Mr. Mikaelson, when a deal is offered a bargain can always be reached."

"Okay Sweetheart I'll bite," He smirked, "Just what is it you think you have that I would want."

Caroline licked her lips exhaling sharply before saying firmly, "Mikael. I have Mikael."

Klaus felt the veins crawl beneath his eyes, "What do you mean by that and how do you know of _him?"_ His fangs dropped as he hissed harshly, "No more games Caroline. If you lie I will kill you where you stand." She still showed no fear of him, which was the only thing keeping her alive since the moment she uttered that vile name.

"I told you Mr. Mikaelson I know plenty. I know that your sister's body is over there behind those boxes. I know what you run from and I know _why_." She stressed. "What I offer you in lieu of your help and protection of my person is this; Mikael has been desiccated, his body placed in a semi-permanent state of it for at least the next fifty years and kept in a safe and secured location." Her large blue eyes shone with honesty along with the hopes that he would believe her, "I am giving you freedom Mr. Mikaelson, for the first time in centuries you can live free from fear, free from running. You can go anywhere, _do_ anything, _be_ anything you want. I'm dreadfully sorry that I cannot offer you more time than this, I tried, I truly did but this was all I could gain."

Klaus's eyes sparkled with hope at the sincerity pouring off of her but his mind quickly tamped down, "And how did _you_ , a mob bosses daughter manage all this hmm? How do I know this is not just a trick that Mikael himself is playing?"

"I own this warehouse, I own the bar connected to it," Caroline rolled her eyes, "and I am very close with Gloria herself. She owed me a great debt and this is how I chose to have her pay it." Caroline sighed, her shoulders slumping. It was time to play her last card and hope for the best, either way, she would be free.

"My life has been tied to the spell placed on Mikael. The spell used to put him in his desiccated state needed to be anchored to a living being. This doesn't mean you cannot kill me where I stand, whether I die or whether I live, he will remain where he is and just how he is. It was only for the initial part of the spell that I was needed, you may ask Gloria all about it if you will." She waved her hand in the air, "I did not do this to hold anything over your head Mr. Mikaelson. I did this to give you the one thing I lack, the one thing I yearn for more than anything else."

Klaus was rendered speechless by her, by her voice, her demeanor and by her doe eyes shimmering with tears and a hope for something so far out of her reach. "What's that?"

"Freedom." She whispered through trembling lips before laughing with a harshness one such as her should never feel, "I'm not the daughter of a dead Mob Boss, I _am_ the Mob Boss. I have been since the day I turned sixteen and my father fell ill." She gritted her teeth, jabbing herself with a pointed nail in the chest with each word she hissed, "I made this town what it is. I handled all the underhanded deals. And now?! They all wish to strip it from me by any means necessary as if it wasn't me all along!"

Klaus heard the guns shake in the hands of the goons behind him and by the look in Caroline's angry face she did as well yet she chose to ignore it.

Caroline closed her eyes, inhaling and exhaling to calm her frazzled nerves. Once she opened them again they showed a strange combination of her truly young age and a wisdom way beyond her years, "I have a plan Mr. Mikaelson." She stated calmly with a shake of her head, "A plan that I cannot see through to its fruition without your help. Everywhere I turn I am fraught and met with danger. I cannot even sleep in my own bed without someone attempting to accost me and kill me where I lay." Her arms that had gestured wildly beside her fell to her sides, her shoulders slumping in what looked like defeat. It was a look Klaus found that he oddly disliked on her. "I'm tired Mr. Mikaelson. So blasted tired. I'm only twenty-three, I want to see more than what this dark seedy town has to offer."

Caroline mistook his stunned silence as that he needed an extra push. And since she had nothing left to lose she continued speaking, her passion blaring from her with every word.

"You have your freedom Mr. Mikaelson, no strings, no gimmicks. You. Are. Free. Won't you help me find mine as well?" When he just stared at her, his face unreadable even for her, who could find everyone's tells, her shoulders dropped and her sigh was resigned knowing it was no use. This man would never help her, "I will not allow them to be the ones to kill me. I will take my own life before such a thing. Or better yet, allow you to be the one to do it. At least in death I will gain some semblance of the freedom I long for."

Klaus flashed over to her, grasping her wrist in one hand while the other raised her chin, "Do not ever speak that way again. Do you understand me?" Hearing this stunning and unbelievably strong creature speak so callously about her own death struck such a deep cord in him that it vibrated through his body with the force of an earthquake.

Caroline's eyes shot up to his, her mouth dropping in awe as she search his face, "You'll do it? You'll help me?"

Klaus exerted more pressure on her delicate wrist giving it a small shake, "Answer me!"

"I…I won't. I promise." Caroline stuttered in awed relief that he was willing to help her.

Klaus searched her eyes finding nothing but honesty in them along with a real flare of hope. Gently he released her wrist, taking a step back as his mind raced. What she had given him was more than he dared to hope for over these long centuries; a chance to rest, a chance to plan, a chance to just, as she put it; be. Her impassioned speech, so filled with emotions, struck a deep kinsmanship, this deep seeded feeling of being connected and understanding another person. Something he never before found in another.

Klaus swallowed in shock.

She reminded him very much of himself.

That is what truly stayed his hand, or rather, his fangs from ripping her apart or denying her what she asked of him. He could give her, this beautiful creature, the one thing that no one, not until her, had ever given him.

A chance, a real chance at a life beyond fear and death.

Caroline could finally read nearly every emotion on his face as he stared at her with his back turned away from the hired guns. She seen it clearly when he committed himself to helping her and a smirk grew over her red lips as she bowed her head. "Thank you Mr. Mikaelson."

He bowed slightly, no trace of the mockery like his early bow to be seen as he gracefully placed her hand in his, delicately brushing his lips over her undeniably soft skin, "Seeing that we shall be working together please," He grinned cockily, "call me Klaus."

Klaus watched as she relaxed back into the temptress that strutted her way in the warehouse this evening, a wicked smirk growing over his lips at the sight. He dropped her hand, leaning his body in closely to hers; gently brushing her golden locks over her shoulder and releasing them so that they cascaded over her back.

"I can smell the vervain on you Caroline." He whispered, "But from those two I cannot."

Caroline's smile grew widely as her eyes glittered with mischief, "That's because they have none and have no knowledge of just what you are." She whispered softly, her gaze flicking over to the two men as they tried in vain to overhear what was being said. "I was hoping you could help me out. You know, in a way only _you_ can provide?" She asked him pointedly.

"Tell me what you need Caroline?" His grin deepened at the blush that coursed over her cheeks as he drew out her name lowly. _Interesting._ He filed that reaction away for later use, now that he knew he would be sticking around for a while he fully intended to discover every inch of her luscious curves.

The hard sophisticate grace fell back over her face as she stepped away from him, his eyes following her every move as she strutted with a sensual yet firm sway of her hips, "It seems as though one of these men hasn't been very honest with me." Caroline crossed her arms downward in front of her body, placing her hands together and swaying with a pout, "It's such a shame too. They know how I feel about lies."

Klaus watched in awe as she went from temptress, to innocence maiden and back to hardened Mob Boss all within seconds. She had a way of keeping all those around her guessing and he found it utterly enthralling.

 _Oh yes, she was exquisite indeed._ Klaus thought delightedly.

The two men began shaking but only one began to run. Klaus smirked; he did so enjoy it when they ran, and flashed after him gaining on him in seconds.

Casually resting a hand against the door frame, Klaus blocked the man's escape, "Where do you think you are going Mate? I believe the Lady wishes to have a word."

The sniveling man snarled through his teeth pointing the gun in Klaus's face. Klaus huffed and rolled his eyes before he knocked it away showing his full fangs at the man before flashing behind him and wrapped his arm around the coward's throat hissing, "It's rude to keep her waiting."

Dragging him back over to Caroline, Klaus held him tightly while compelling the other man to stay still and silent and to only speak honestly when Caroline chose to speak to him.

Once done he spun the man in his arms harshly, gripping his neck as he compelled the same from him only leaving out the staying still. Klaus took a twisted sense of satisfaction out of the man's pathedic attempts at freeing himself from the tight hold he was in.

Caroline stepped up to him, glaring coldly at the shaking man in Klaus's arms as he shouted, "What are you?! You're something straight out of a nightmare!"

Klaus flexed his arm around his neck causing the man to gasp as he hissed in his ear, "You're quite right mate, now be a good lad and answer the Lady's questions."

Caroline smirked at the uncontrollably trembling man running a single finger down his nose before tapping its end tsking him, "You know Peter, you've been a member of my family's staff for what? Ten years? You watch me grow; hell I played alongside your children. So tell me, why?"

Her smile beamed as his eyes widened, "You didn't think I knew of your little plot to kill me?" Caroline scoffed, "Come one Peter you know I'm smarter than that!" Her eyes turned as frigid as the Artic Sea, "Tell me why."

Peter's mouth opened and the terrified shock in his eyes spoke volumes about how much he did not plan to say what he was, "I was supposed to take over for your Father. Instead I had to cower around doing the bidding of a sixteen year old girl. I was going to do away with you and was told I would be in top command."

Caroline's eyes narrowed, there was a reason she had taken over her Father's business and her instincts were screaming at her that there was more to this story, "I think you're holding back on me Pete." She grinned at his sneer at the shorten name she knew he hated, "What is it you're hiding from me?"

His body was shaking in fear and with the exertion he used to try and stop the words from flowing from his lips, "I was going to have some fun with you first. You're always prancing around in those little dresses. Tempting me." He spat staring in her appalled face completely unaware of the livid expression Klaus had behind him, "I was going to show you how a real man behaves."

With a gurgled gasp and a sickening rip Klaus tore the vile man's heart out from his back, his own chest heaving in disgust.

Caroline watched as Peter fell to the ground with a thud and then his heart followed behind him with a wet smack. Glancing back up at Klaus with enraged eyes, "I wasn't done!" She held tight just barely stopping herself from stomping her foot as Klaus licked his fingers clean.

Once his hand was washed of the disgusting man's blood, Klaus spit it on the floor beside the dead man before looking back to her with gritted teeth and blackened red eyes hissing through his fangs, "Apologies Caroline but he clearly had it coming to him."

"I needed to know who he was working for Klaus!" Klaus shrugged his shoulders in response causing her to throw her arms into the air, "Ugh!" She narrowed her eyes and pointed a waving finger in his face, "Next time no killing until I'm done. Got it?"

"I'll make no promises Sweetheart, but I will try." Klaus smirked again at her angry face as she huffed and turned to the other man.

Caroline wasted no time in question the younger man, "Did you know what he planned to do?"

Finally released from his frozen hold he stuttered, "I…I…I knew about the hit but I didn't know the rest. I swear! Caro..." He gulped at the hard look she gave him over using her given name. "Mistress Forbes I swear it to you. I would never...I would never have participated much less allowed such a thing to happen to you."

Caroline crossed an arm over her chest, resting the elbow of her other in her hand as she circled her wrist, "But you knew I was to be killed correct?" At his nod of assent she hummed contemplatively.

Klaus chose this moment to strut his way over with his hand clasped behind his back, "What shall I do with him?"

The malicious gleam in her dazzling blue eyes sent a rush straight to his loins.

"Eat him. If you wish of course." Caroline offered simply.

"Gladly." He replied with a devilish smirk.

Klaus stepped behind the quivering man, starring straight at Caroline as his fangs dropped and his veins began crawling down his cheeks. He kept his eyes looked on hers as he bit into the man's throat and proceeded to drain him dry.

She didn't even flinch at the sight of the blood nor at the beautiful violence of it all, though in her line of work he shouldn't be surprised. The thing that surprised him was how she watched every pull he took from the man. The sight of her acceptance of the act left him utterly and purely aroused.

Once the man was dead Klaus carelessly dropped his body to the ground.

Caroline offered him her handkerchief from her coat pocket, "You'll need to move your siblings. I have another warehouse, which will be spelled by Gloria so that only you may enter. They will be safe there I promise. After we load them into the van we will torch this place."

Klaus wiped his face clean of blood, ready to take hold of her and kiss her until she was numb to all but him. But with one look at her his raging arousal died down at the sight of her drawn and tired face. "Are you well Caroline?"

She laughed harshly, "I haven't slept more than a few moments at a time in nearly a year Klaus. I'm completely exhausted."

"Then allow me to take care of my siblings quickly so that we may get you home to rest." He offered kindly no matter how much he longed to take her in her bed instead. He knew there would be plenty of time for that.

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Klaus wandered the halls and rooms of Caroline's townhouse. When she had brought him here just over a fortnight ago he had been shocked to say the least at her modest dwelling. He had expected someone of her stature and status to live within the walls of a grand mansion; though he did appreciate her reasoning for such a smaller dwelling.

" _Trying to protect the huge house my father had us living in was a dreaded nightmare. Besides, with not knowing for complete certainty just who I can and cannot trust this place suits me well."_

And suit her well it did. Klaus had discovered many things about the lovely Caroline during the night while she tossed and turned in her bed.

She was a connoisseur of beautiful and exquisite works of art. Her study was filled to the brim with books and novels ranging in a wide variety of guilty pleasures, classic literature and many texts of the newer technologies. She had collected many books that were vastly studied in a number of the universities around the country if not the globe itself.

And something told Klaus that she had read each and every one of them.

Her décor was modest with a subtle hint of flare and personality to each and every piece scattered around her home.

Even the guest bedroom she had given to him, just two doors down from hers with only the water-closet between them, was decorated in such a way that was appeasing to the eyes. Nothing too feminine but not overly male either, it was a hard concept to achieve. He was still trying to teach it to Rebekah after all these years, no man wanted to sleep in a room filled with lace and gaudy flower prints.

But Caroline had found the perfect balance. He supposed that, if he actually slept, waking up to a room with the perfect delicate blends of soft shades and dark hues and the geometric patterns scattered about could actually feel quite…homey.

Klaus scoffed at the fanciful thought. He was here to do a job, to protect her and then he would be on his way to enjoy the freedom she had gifted him so extraordinarily. He planned to seduce her when the moment was right but beyond that, well needless to say, he never stuck around for whatever came after.

His head jerked towards the ceiling as Caroline's typical soft tossing and mumbles in the night took a more frantic turn. He didn't even think to search with his senses for any other heartbeats in the house; all he felt was a panicked dread that Caroline was in danger as he flashed around the corner and up the staircase to her room.

He barged into her bedroom with eyes blazing and fangs bared only to pull up short, allowing the rigid stance of his body to relax at the sight before him.

A look of pity and understanding flashed across his face as he watched her struggle within the web of whatever nightmare plagued her.

As he crossed the room to wake her he couldn't help but notice no matter how much she tossed about on the bed, her left arm never moved from beneath her pillow. He found it oddly adorable.

Carefully sitting on the bed beside her Klaus reached forward brushing her matted hair off her forehead, "Caroline. Sweetheart wake up."

Her eyes instantly snapped open at his first touch, almost too quickly for Klaus to see she had a gun cocked and pointed at his head. He had just enough time to knock her hand away before she took the shot, the bullet going straight through the ceiling.

Caroline's mouth dropped open, sleep leaving her quickly as she realized just what she had almost done. The gun dropped to the bed from her numbed hand.

"Oh my! Klaus I'm so sorry. I didn't...I wasn't…" her voice was shaking and her body trembled.

Klaus leaned in placing his hands on her shoulders only to pull back with a frown was he noticed her flinch.

"You know if never hurt you."

He heard her gulp before she replied in a small voice, "I know."

His eyes narrowed in speculation, "But someone has. Was that what you were dreaming about?" Klaus glanced down to the still smoking gun on the bed, "And just where did you get that?"

Caroline bit her lower lip shifting over on her bed to move her pillow. There built into the headboard was a panel that she could press open with a simple flick of her wrist.

Klaus arched his eyebrow at her waiting for her to speak and explain.

Caroline sighed, pulling the covers up around her after she replaced the pillow. "Remember how I told you that my father's estate was harder to protect?" At his slow nod she continued, "And those things the guy in the warehouse said he was going to do?"

Klaus clenched his jaw at the thoughts of that revolting man, wishing he was alive just so he could kill him once again. "Yes I recall."

Caroline's eyes flicked nervously around the room as she spoke, her fingers twirling the blankets end between her fingers, "Well that's not the first time someone has," She cleared her throat, gulping anxiously, "that someone has tried to do such things to my…to me."

"What?" Klaus's snarl was so deathly quiet that it drew Caroline's eyes to his face. His face spoke of pure rage that he seemed to have trouble keeping in check.

She reached forward placing her hand on his tense arm, "Hey, hey. I'm fine. No one ever made it," A blush stole over her cheeks, "I am still untouched. A few of my trusted men were able to put a stop to it in time." She pulled her hand back when his eyes flicked between her face and her hand. "One of them, Enzo, he was the one who suggested we move me to a more secure location. He is even the one who built the secret cubby for my pistol. That way if he wasn't around, I could take care of myself. Plus it helps with the nightmares. It gives me a sense of control you know?"

Klaus slid his hand across the bed, wrapping his hand around hers with a soft smile when she accepted his touch without a flinch, "I'm pleased to hear someone was looking out for you Caroline. So where is this Chap?"

Her forehead furrowed, "I'm not too sure. He was a witch or warlock rather. He was only here looking for something personal and in need of employment during his stay so I hired him, don't worry Gloria vouched for him. He would often travel between here and back home to his wife Maggie. And don't even give me that look. There was nothing going on with us and Maggie damn well knew it."

"So then is he back home with his wife you reckon?"

"I don't know. I cannot seem to make contact with either of them and last I heard from Enzo he was meeting his friend, oh what was his name, a Damon something or other." Caroline fell silent her eyes looking deep in thought as she stared at the wall opposite the bed.

"Hey," Klaus spoke softly, "If you'd like I can have some of my people look into it."

Caroline shook her head, "No that's fine. I am sure he and Maggie are doing well and just finally took that vacation she had been asking for."

"Well then, now that that is settled let's get you back to sleep." Klaus looked at her sternly when she was ready to argue, "No fighting me on this Caroline. It is only three in the morning and you need your rest."

Caroline huffed, "Yeah well I don't see you doing much resting."

He smirked smugly, "I don't need quite as much as you do Love. Now off to sleep for you." He stood from the bed making his way to the bedroom door.

Caroline bit her lip nervously as she settled back down in the bed; she cursed herself for not being strong enough to hold back, "Will you stay?"

Taking a good look at her he knew just how much it cost her to ask as well as feel the need to do so in the first place, "Of course Caroline. Let me go grab a book out of your vast collection…"

"Actually, while I was planning to give it to you at a later date, maybe the gift for you there on my table will help keep you occupied." Caroline grinned at his bashful and shock face, "What? Hasn't anyone ever given you a present before?"

"It's been a great many years Love." He breathed out in awe as he watched gratefully when Caroline rolled over in her bed to go back to sleep. He knew her well enough that she was trying to give him space and not make such a big deal over her gift.

Lifting the lid to the box curiously he found a sketchpad and charcoal pencils, a grin growing on his lips at how well she seemed to know him as well. His brows furrowed as he lifted them out only to find yet another very old looking book. Setting the sketchpad down he was astounded to find a very detailed handwritten book covering many years and histories of the vast majorities of werewolf clans around the country.

Klaus looked to her his astonishment clear in his voice, "Caroline, where ever did you find this?"

Her voice was muffled by her covers as she answered, "Shh! My Hired Fangs says I need my beauty rest."

Klaus chuckled quietly, allowing her this pass, though he could not imagine her growing any more beautiful then she already was.

He pulled out the chair at her table to sit intent on flipping through the book but the sight of her sleeping face made his fingers itch for the pencil.

Moving the chair silently Klaus settled himself in closer to the bed and began sketching her lovey features.

Now that he had the time, he could process just what it was she had inadvertently told him. Something he had never truly put much stock into by any means.

Caroline was as of yet untouched, she was a maiden in every sense of the word. In a time where things were changing rapidly such a thing was almost unheard of, especially in the crowd she ran with. Or rather, ruled over.

Studying her angelic sleeping face he knew that his plans of seducing her were out the preverbal window. Caroline deserved better than a quick rough and tumble only to be left alone the following morning. Still, even more so now, he wanted her with a blazing passion.

Perhaps he could convince her to travel with him when all this was over. That maybe they could just enjoy their new found freedom together.

And maybe, just maybe, he could even convince her to turn. Something deep within Klaus told him that he wouldn't tire of her for quite a long while, if ever. And though that thought frightened him in a way he didn't comprehend, he chose to ignore it and put all those wayward feelings to paper.

Besides, Caroline would make a marvelous vampire.

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The end for the moment. Part two coming within a day or two.


	20. What A Wonderful Gift

**25 Days of Klaroline. Day 25 Christmas.**

 **What a Wonderful Gift.**

A Short Klaroline Christmas Story.

Slightly AU. None of the Originals stuff happened, outside of Klaus going there to war with Marcel, which he is winning, duh! Sterilized…whoops! I mean Steroline, never happened. I'm not sure if it will read this way or not but this story is meant to be a slow paced and softly spoken story. Think of the song by _Louis Armstrong, What a Wonderful World_. It may cause you some tears, moments of awe, happiness and over all Klaroline feels. So be warned.

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Caroline stood at the boarder just outside of Mystic falls. The ends of her green and red plaid scarf blew gently in the wind as she stared at the place where she knew the line sat between staying a vampire and having all the magic drawn out of her. Her bright red knitted cap sat firmly on her head keeping her long blonde curls from blowing in her face as her clenched her fists tightly within the pockets of her white fur coat.

She clamped her jaw and let a heavy emotional sigh slip from between her teeth, the heat from her breath in the cold winter evening swirled in front of her face.

She didn't know if she could do this.

No one knew she was here and she preferred it that way, especially after how she left things.

Back in February of this year her Mother had passed away leaving her broken and lost. Her friends tried to be there for her but she couldn't think straight. She had been moments away from turning it off when a sudden thought hit her.

Her Mother wouldn't want that for her.

So instead Caroline snapped Elena and Stefan's necks, it must have been their own grief and concern that allowed her to even get away with it. She packed a bag as quickly as she could, grabbed all her important paperwork, penned a quick note that simply said that she couldn't take it anymore and needed time on her own, before flashing from the town and hadn't looked back.

Well, until today.

As much as in the beginning she resented Matt for keeping her up to date on their friends and the town's lives, she was now thankful. At least she knew what to expect and wouldn't have any surprises when she walked passed the border into town.

Caroline took a deep breath, pulling her hand from her coat pocket and began to walk towards the border with her arm held straight out in front of her.

"Are you sure you want to do that Love?"

Caroline's eyes squeezed shut and her arm dropped the moment his accented sympathetic voice washed over her.

Without opening her eyes or turning around she whispered bleakly, "What are you doing here Klaus?"

Klaus sighed at the sight of her ridged posture and walked up behind her laying his hands gently on top of her shoulders, paying no mind to her initial flinch before she relaxed her body.

"You promised to never come back." She whispered weakly.

"Extenuating circumstances." His warm breath ghosted over her cheek as he whispered tenderly, "I do hope you'll forgive me, but I had a hunch you would show up here today and I couldn't stand the thought of you doing this alone."

Caroline's throat began to close and tears welled in her eyes as she stared at the pathway into Mystic Falls, "But that's what I am. I'm alone."

Klaus felt his chest constrict at the sorrow in her voice and the tears he didn't need to see to know they were there clouding over her lovely blue eyes. "You don't have to be Caroline." Klaus rubbed his hands soothingly over her shoulders, "I'll be here if you want me to be. But if you don't, you only have to say the word and I promise to walk away."

Caroline's huffed laughter sounded pitiful even to her own ears, "You already promised that and look how that turned out."

Klaus chuckled softly before keeping with their hushed tones, "True. But it's the first Christmas without your Mother Caroline and I just couldn't stand you feeling that you had to be alone."

When she didn't reply Klaus assumed he had put far too much pressure on her during this emotional time for her and removed his hands from her shoulders only to gasp quietly as she reached behind her to clutch his hand with a gentle grip.

"Stay." Her whispered plea floated in the air around them before she slowly turned to face him with silent tears tracking down her face, "I can't do this alone."

Klaus smiled softly at her, running the backs of his fingers down her delicate cheek, "Then you won't."

He switched their hands so they could walk into the town while still holding onto each other only to have Caroline freeze. He turned back to look at her questioningly, wondering if she had had a change of heart or her courage to do what she came to do judging by the bag slung over her shoulder had fled her.

"Wait. You do know what will happen to us, to you, once we cross the town line right?" Caroline asked him hesitantly.

Klaus grinned at her and stepped closer using his free hand to wipe away the worry on her brow, "Yes I am well aware."

Caroline's head drew back slightly in shocked surprise, "And you're still willing to go with me?"

Klaus huffed a disbelieving chuckled with a shake of his head, "Caroline, when will you get it through that thick lovely skull of yours that I am willing to do anything for you?" His soft smile curved into a slight smirk and a wink of his eye, "Though I made it a point to survey the area beforehand, just to be sure it was safe."

Caroline laughed lightly with a roll of her eyes, "Of course you did." Her tongue peeked out to swipe her lower lip before her teeth sank into it making it turn white as she released it from her their hold, "Thank you." She watched as he blew out a bashful puff of air, ready to deny her thanks. She gave his hand a gentle squeeze, "I'm serious Klaus. Thank you."

Klaus read the sincerity in her eyes as her long dark lashes fluttered and gave her a simple nod as he tucked her hand in the crook of his arm, "Yeah well, we best be on our way wouldn't you agree?"

Caroline sighed shakily, "Yeah."

Together they walked in tense steps to the border line; both took a quick glance at the other before giving a half grin. Then with a deep breath they took that final step into Mystic Falls.

The feeling was odd for Caroline as they walked through the wooded path to the back of the local cemetery. Though by the pale look and the deep concentration on Klaus's face she realized it had to be a thousand times weirder for him.

She wondered what he was thinking, what he was feeling that now he was human, at least for this small moment in time, after over a thousand years of being anything but.

And he did it all for her.

Klaus put himself in the danger, whether he had checked the area out first or not, it was still a risk. A risk that she never imagined he would even think of taking.

And he did it for the sole purpose of her not doing this alone.

Caroline sighed shakily and gulped down harshly at such a thing. Her eyes quickly glanced over to the man escorting her to her Mother's grave on this snowy Christmas night nervously, waiting for him to ask her what was wrong.

That was when it hit her.

He didn't have his normal advantage of his Hybrid senses to pick up on her discomfort or nerves. He didn't have his Hybrid senses for anything at all.

Klaus had left himself completely and utterly vulnerable just to do this for her. Just to be there for her during her first Christmas without her Mother. He came here knowing full well what this journey of hers could potentially cost him; his very life if any one of his enemies knew of it.

Yet he did it anyways.

His words raced through her mind like a bullet.

" _Caroline, when will you get it through that thick lovely skull of yours that I am willing to do anything for you?"_

" _I intend to be your last. However long it takes."_

Her heart raced frantically in her chest, nowhere near the sluggish way a vampires did when they were overcome with emotions, making it feel almost foreign as her mind tried to play catch up to what all of this meant.

"We're here Caroline."

Klaus's slightly nervous and on edge voice startled her out of her own thoughts. She glanced up at him and then threw her gaze to the back gate of the local cemetery.

Klaus mistook her edginess as her bravery failing her, "Sweetheart you can do this. I'll wait right over there," He pointed a finger towards a tree a little ways off from where she knew her Mother's grave was, "And if you need me or you need to leave, whatever it is I will be here." Klaus cupped the sides of her face in his hands looking her in the eyes, "But know this Caroline, you are strong. You can handle this with all the grace and strength that I know you possess."

Caroline's hands rose to grip his wrist in a tight hold, her eyes never breaking from his, "Thank you." She let go of him with a tight smile and he watched with pride at her inner strength as she opened the gate and walked over to her Mother's tombstone with a pleased smile at the sight of so many flower arrangements waiting for her. A few of which he himself had sent.

Klaus stood off to the side leaning against the tree, giving Caroline the respect and privacy with her mother's tombstone she needed. It was an odd experience for him, to see her not too far away, to just be able to make out the shape of her lips moving but not able to hear what she was saying.

He placed his hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat frantically from within, knowing that for the first time in centuries it was beating to keep him alive and not just moving the blood around his immortal body.

He drew in a deep breath, unable to sense the things around him as he would have been able to with his keen Hybrid senses but it was strangely more filling in some way. It held more purpose. Not only did this deep breath of air keep him filled with the oxygen his body temporarily required, but it gave him an overwhelming sense of peace, a sense of self.

He could smell and taste the snow that covered the ground and trees in a way he had long since taken for granted.

It was in that moment as he breathed in the air he hadn't required for so long, watching on as Caroline knelt next to her Mother's tombstone laying the beautiful red roses she had brought along with her on its top, that Klaus realized the gift that coming here for her had given him.

That moment so long ago he had told her about, that time with that small simple hummingbird became his own moment of wonder.

Here he stood, the most powerful creature on the planet, reduced to a simple insignificant human man. And yet, as he tilted his head with a soft smile at the beautiful woman who looked over her shoulder at him for the support she needed, he felt anything but insignificant.

He truly felt like the most powerful creature on the planet. More so than he ever had in his thousand years of existence.

As a simple human man; whose heart beat for survival, whose lungs filled with much needed oxygen, he was able to make this wonderfully strong and full of light woman feel safe and secure. He was able to let her know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was not and would never be what she feared the most just as much as he did himself, alone.

Aye, Klaus thought with a peaceful smile, what a truly wonderful gift it was.

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.

.

Caroline could see the boundary line just a short distance away and tugged on Klaus's arm to pull him to a stop.

"Wait."

His trusting gray eyes looked down at her in concern, not concern for himself she recognized easily, but concern for her, "What is it Caroline?"

Her beguiling blue eyes looked up at him from underneath her long lashes as she cupped his face uttering, "This." Right before her soft lush lips began to caress his own.

Klaus groaned lowly as her lips danced with his, looping his arm around her lower back to pull her tightly against his solid frame as his other hand cupped the side of her face, his fingers twining into her hair peeking out from her red knit cap.

They had kissed before, more than kissed before, in these very woods but this way different. Something about this moment touched them both in a way Klaus had long forgotten and Caroline never even knew existed.

It was sweet. It was innocent. This melding of lips and soft swipes of tongues, hands that gripped frantically but was soft as a feather's touch. Hearts that pounded and lungs that screamed for air all the while lips that never wanted to stop kissing.

Caroline pulled back first, her head resting on his heaving chest as she fought to catch her breath.

Klaus wrapped his arms around her, linking his hands together behind her back as he laid his head atop of hers while he attempted to find his own breath.

Once their lungs calmed to a soothing rhythm and their heart slowed to a steady beat, they pulled back to look at each other searchingly before sharing a soft shy smile and began walking back to the edge of Mystic Falls.

The power rushed back into their limbs the moment they stepped back over the line. Veins crawled down their faces as their eyes flashed red and yellow before they gained control back over their reactions.

Klaus looked over at her, every bit the lost man he was, unsure for the first time in centuries what to do next. Caroline was sure that he thought her kissing him was just something she did in the moment. Here they stood, very much like they had before, both ready to let the other go.

Well, the surprise is on him isn't it? He had given her the one thing she needed more than anything, the one gift she never imagined she would find under her Christmas tree this year or ever again.

He had proven to her that she was not alone. She could have him if she wanted.

And she did. She thought before she flashed over to him, throwing herself into his arms and crashed her lips to his.

His grip on her felt stronger, sturdier than when they had been human. More than that, it felt right in a way she had all but blocked out before. Not anymore. She broke the kiss, leaning her forehead against his as he lowered his head to try and capture her lips once more.

"Take me somewhere."

"Where Love?" He asked in confusion.

"Anywhere." She breathed against his lips as her large round eyes gazed deeply into his, "As long as I'm with you, as long as you stay with me, I couldn't care less."

Klaus read the true and unfiltered honesty blazing from her eyes and it nearly knocked him over. Yes he had hoped, but he had never let himself believe that this would happen on this night.

That she would finally chose him, fully, completely; just as he had long ago chosen her, even before he realized it himself.

Klaus cupped her face tenderly, his eyes changing to a color Caroline had never seen on him before. And then she understood, this is what true happiness looked like in Klaus's eyes.

"I will stay for as long as you'll have me Caroline."

"Hmm. Well then it's a good thing we can live forever. You know; last loves and all that."

Their beaming smiles matched as they gazed happily into each other's eyes, leaning in closer as Caroline whispered against his lips, "Merry Christmas Klaus."

"Merry Christmas My Love." Klaus breathed across her lips before pressing his own against hers once more.

Neither noticed the snow begin to fall, or how the clouds shifted to allow the moon and star light to filter down on them as she broke the kiss and began the walk away from Mystic falls and towards their future.

The only thing they noticed was the feel of each other as Caroline wrapped an arm around his back and Klaus held her close with his arm slung protectively over her shoulder. All the wonder of the world around them swirled and both felt it was purely for them, for their new beginning, for their real chance at never feeling alone or lost again. Even as the reality of the world around them set in they both couldn't help but think, what a wonderful world it truly was.

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I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday's!

Thank you all for your love and support. This will be my last "new" story for a while since now I will be focusing on the ending to Above All Else as well as the next installments to all my drabbles as well as finishing up the prompts I have been sent. I am still taking new requests and prompts! So feel free to send those my way. ;)

Remember you are not alone. If you, any of you, need _anything_ please don't hesitate to message me on here or on tumblr. I am here. For anything and everything, and always for YOU. 3tinkgemini.


	21. A Klaroline New Year's Tradition

**A Klaroline New Year's Tradition.**

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 _She walked away from Mystic Falls in 2015. Caroline kissed her Mother on the cheek and with a tearful yet excited,_ I'll call you later _, and then she was off to see the world._

 _She took to staying in a new place for a year, ringing in the New Year before moving on to brand new city. She didn't see much of her old friends outside of a phone call here, a couple day meet-up there. She was taking in new sights, meeting and making new friends. Trying new things and all around just experiencing what the world had to offer her._

 _Somehow over the years, though she had no idea how, every New Year's Eve right at midnight there was a certain set of lips she would be kissing. But most of the time when she would open her eyes he would be gone. At first she thought she was going crazy. Then it turned into a game. A game she began to enjoy and look forward to immensely._

 **2016 New York City:** She was in love with The Big Apple. The countdown was exciting and the people even more so, though she stood alone by the waiting taxi watching the ball drop from a few miles away feeling a sliver of disappointment that there was no one around for the traditional New Year's Eve kiss to take place with. That was the exact moment she caught a whiff of Klaus, felt his strong arms band around her back, clutching her to him tightly before his lips crashed against hers without so much as a hello. She barely had time to cup more than the side of his neck before he pulled back whispering, _"Happy New Year Caroline."_

And then he was gone.

Leaving her standing breathlessly next to the running taxi as the driver shouted from the window that he didn't have all night. It wasn't until her stunned mind caught up with her body when she took her seat in the airplane that she grinned, recalling that he was just as breathless as she was.

 **2017 London:** Big Ben had begun to toll its massive bells, the crowd cheering drunkenly right along with it. She had no idea where he came from; she hadn't giving it a second thought to whether or not he would show. The past year she had just shrugged it off as a coincidence that he happened to be in New York City on New Year's Eve much like herself. But as his scent reached her at the same moment he appeared before her, kissing her sweetly as the fireworks began, she found herself wondering if it was a coincident at all. That night as she packed the last of her bags for her morning flight she couldn't quite shake the softness of his lips and the way he looked at her before he flashed out of sight from playing through her head.

 **2018 Berlin:** She danced and shouted along with the others in the audience not caring in the slightest that she didn't understand a word that was being spoken or sang. Music, she had decided, was a multi-cultural language that needed no translation. Suddenly she was assaulted, very pleasantly so, by yet another language that needed no translation as Klaus spun her to face him in the middle of the crowded concert and crashed his lush lips against her. Her fingers had just made purchase in his hair before he spun her away and was gone leaving no trace but her tingling lips that she touched with her fingertips behind him.

 **2019 Sydney:** She tagged along with a group of local boaters to watch the fireworks show from out in the Bay. The day had been hot and the heat in the air had barely cooled even into the night leaving most in nothing but their swim trunks and bikinis. Joining the laughing and drunken girls, she dove off the boat's stern to wade in the water. Just as the countdown began she smirked as she kicked her legs and used her arms to stay afloat thinking he would never find her here, even as a part of her felt a smidge of regret that she wouldn't be kissing him this year. He appeared next to her in the water as if her very thoughts had summoned him. The warm water slid between them as his arm banded around her waist pulling her close as his wet hand cupped her cheek before their lips and tongues began to duel. She felt him propel them backwards, their bodies slicing through the water as her head tilted to deepen the kiss. She felt him lift her body, seating her on the boat's stern as he pulled away with a cocky smirk. The goosebumps caused by the heat in his eyes as they trailed down her body stayed with her long after he disappeared beneath the water.

 **2020 Moscow:** Her body was warmed from the vodka as she traversed the frozen city streets. Her blue curious eyes flicked and scanned the area wondering where he would pop up next. She didn't have long to wait. As the clock struck midnight she was set ablaze as his hot tongue slid into her waiting mouth, both his gloved hands cupping and holding her face to him. It was hours later in her bed when she realized what had caused her strange feeling of disappointment. She wanted to feel the heat of his skin warming her chilled and flushed cheeks. In the back of her mind throughout the year all she could think about was the heat of his skin pressed against her own in that warm water in Australia. She rolled her eyes at herself as she turned on her side with a huff; that explained why she unconsciously chose a place this year that called for many layers of clothing.

 **2021 Montreal:** She was smiling from ear to ear as she spun and twirled effortlessly on the ice of the skating rink in the center of the city. She readied herself to make another pass around the rink only to have a sturdy set of arms band around her waist from behind pulling her in close as the cheers range in the New Year. He skated behind her around the rink once before spinning her to him, pressing his lips against her soft waiting ones. She giggled excitedly as he lifted her into a spin only to pout and glance around to find he had disappeared once her skates landed gracefully on the ice once again.

 **2022 Madrid:** She rented an apartment on the top floor of a huge old building that offered a magnificent rooftop view of the celebrations below. She spotted him through the crowd this time and with matching smirks they ducked and weaved through the crowded space teasing each other. She lost sight of him fifteen minutes before midnight only to turn with a gasp finding him standing right there beside her with an excited twinkle in his eyes. They didn't speak, there was no need. Their hands met and their eyes stayed focused on each other's as they began to dance. The kiss was as slow and sensual as their dance steps drawing breathy moans from them both. As the last bell rang her arms gradually fell at the empty space around her. Strangely, she felt just as empty inside herself at the loss.

 **2023 Athens:** Dressed in the comfortable airy garb of the Greece natives, surrounded by the magical atmosphere of the ancient Gods and Goddesses alike, they met in the center of a temple as the fires burned around them casting them in an ethereal glow. She recalled later as she boarded her plane that this year's kiss shook her like never before. So much so she swore as she settled into her seat that it was powerful enough to strike the very Gods the locals worshiped from their thrones atop Mount Olympus.

 **2024 Dublin:** Drinking more than she had any other year before, she danced her heart out with the locals until her cheeks were as flushed as the humans around her. His laughter rang out loud and clear, mingling beautifully with her own, at the excitement of the atmosphere and the light show being presented once he joined her in the large gathering of people. Their kiss turned sloppy due to the slaps on his back from the local men and was full of their mutual deep chuckles and bubbly giggles as the people around them hollered and whistled.

 **2025 Dubai:** She looked and felt as though she belonged with the World's wealthiest that she was currently rubbing elbows with in her stunning long golden dress. How he managed to have his tuxedo's embellishments match its shade exactly she never asked while he twirled her gracefully around the gala's ballroom floor. As the champagne flowed in preparation of the New Year's toast he escorted her off to the side of the ballroom. Silently he took her crystal glass from her hand to join his on an empty and forgotten table. Her shining eyes danced between his with a newly formed confidence pouring off her in waves. His tongue swiped his lips before placing a shy and tender kiss upon her soft pink painted lips. As they walked slowly away from each other that night, their hands parting at the last possible second, their cheeks were filled with a blush that neither could explain.

 **2026 Tromso:** He found her standing alone atop a snow covered mountain. Her smile was beaming as her blue eyes dancing with the lights of the village below and the colorful Aurora Borealis in the skies above. Both were bundled for the inclement weather, even they could feel the chill in the frigid air. The thick stuffing of their parkas and the layers of gloves, hats and scarfs made it too difficult to gather in close to each other as the cheers from below echoed through the valley. Their frozen noses brushed while their lips gently pecked as a peaceful haze slowly devoured them both. She quietly leaned against his shoulder with his arm wrapping around her body as they stood together until the last light from the majestic sight above them faded into darkness. He escorted her back to her rented dog sled, helping her on with an affectionate smile. She grinned with a nod of her head before clicking her tongue commanding the dogs to begin their trek back down to the village. She felt his eyes warming her back until she was well out of sight.

 **2027 Las Vegas:** She fell in with a group of merrymakers meandering down Fremont Street, in awe of the Sin City's light show on down its famous strip. Her head was tilted all the way back as her eyes drank in the patterns that mingled with the countdown clock when she felt a hand grip her chin. Her senses picked up on his unique scent just before his teeth clashed with hers; his calloused hands gripped her hips, heating the bare skin he found there between her top and skirt. She clutched at his shoulders, finger nails digging into his skin causing his answering groan to vibrate into her mouth as their bodies writhed together right along with their lips. The sight of his yellow tinged eyes right before he flashed away haunted her dreams from months to come.

 **2028 Hollywood:** She blended right in with the L.A. and Tinsel Town folks; she loved the laid back yet always-party-ready attitudes that could be found everywhere she turned. The music blared around her and with how closely everyone danced alongside her, the beats of their human hearts pounded so heavily through her body that it felt as if they were all her own. Seemingly out of nowhere, she felt strong fingers grip into her long golden curls, her neck was pulled back, her body yanked into his and she caught sight of his eyes flaring yellow at the man standing right behind her before with a deep growl his lip possessed and owned hers. The way he had all but ravished her mouth with his teeth, tongue and lips had her own lips still swollen and tingling hours later when she went home alone.

 **2029 Cancun:** Sweat poured off her body as she danced along with the massive throng of people. Her hands waving in the air, her bare feet pounding against the ground to the deep erotic beat that jumped through the speakers. She felt his hands start at her hips, slithering their way up her overheated body from behind as his body followed, curving to fit along the lines of her own. Once his hands reached hers he spun her quickly to face him, linking their fingers together above their heads and crashing their bodies back together. Their hearts were racing, their lips brushed and their tongues flicked playfully with every provocative rock and sway of their hips to the deep erotic tempo. Her fingers itched to curl themselves into his hair, but his hands held them prisoner as if to tell her that was not what this New Year's was about. It was about the chase, the tease, the artfulness of seduction. With a final dip of his tongue into her mouth he slowly flicked her upper lip and was gone, leaving her panting in the middle of the crowd, her fingers still craving the feel of his hair between them.

 **2030 Orlando:** She spent a week at Disney World, getting in touch with her inner child and loving every second of it. She had made plans to travel back to Miami where she'd been staying to ring in the New Year but she could help but smirk mischievously at the thought of Klaus standing in the middle of the happiest place on earth. Just as Tinkerbell took her midnight flight off the top of Cinderella's castle and the fireworks began to shine she felt arms link around her middle from behind, his lighthearted chuckle brushed over her ear right before she turned her head to meet his lips in a soft quick kiss. He pulled back much too soon for her liking with a laughing smirk and a joyful gleam to his eyes. She felt a well of disappointment as she sighed once he was gone and she could once again pick up on all the laughing and crying children around her. She decided firmly after that no more New Year's Eves in a child's place.

 **2031 Buenos Aires:** She more than made up for last year's blunder she thought wickedly as they danced the tango for hours in the Argentine streets. He spun her out and just as midnight struck he pulled her back in, her body collided with his, their breaths harsh and panting. Her leg curled over his hip with his fingers flexing into the bare skin of her thigh the slit in her dress revealed. His strong thigh slid between her legs as he dipped her backwards. His lips and tongue trailed a path up her exposed neck and over her chin to sensuously curve with her lips as the crowd whistled and hollered.

 **2032 Rio de Janeiro:** They danced an eclectic dance of the locals down the cobbled streets along the water's edge. He twirled her away holding one hand as her other arm flared out only to spin her back into him. His eyes flared with desire as his hands slowly trailing down her sides with hers pressed firmly against his heaving chest. Their eyes locked speaking of all the sinful things they wished for, both knowing the kiss would have to be enough. Her body felt on fire long after he had left and for days to come.

 **2033 Prague:** The night life had her in its grip ever since she stepped off the plane a year ago. After a few close calls with the wrong crowds, she found herself a great group of friends. She did her best not to compare them to her old friends from back home but there were times, like tonight, when that couldn't be helped. They were off on a Bar Crawl to bring in the New Year, and after a drunken night a few months ago she may have accidentally spilled the beans about her New Year's Eve Tradition. They were supportive, even if it was teasingly so, but it felt like an out of body experience for her to have people out there in the world that supported her odd relationship with Klaus. Even if they didn't know who and what he truly was. Her flat mate had noticed her change in demeanor the moment he walked in the door of the pub. As she thought back on the evening the next morning while she packed her belongings she couldn't help but laugh at how right she was about the whole thing being an out of body experience. Her friends had welcomed him with open arms, buying him drinks; even teased a blush or two out of him at how romantic they found it that he followed her around the globe for a single kiss every year. The weirdest thing was, he actually joined in and treated her little group as long lost friends, joking and laughing right along with them. She remembered biting her lip as they made them stand on top of the bar, making a spectacle of their yearly kiss. Her eyes glanced down at the picture one of the girls had taken and had framed for her as a going away present. He had made a big show of yanking her into his body and dipping her low with one arm holding her steady around her back as his hand cradled the back of her head with his eyebrows waggling and a wicked smirk upon his lips. The picture was taken the moment their kiss ended, her body still dipped low in his embrace and their eyes holding a fondness in them, a look she was sure she had never given another. The photo joined her bag with her most cherished possessions, the one she made sure to carry with her every time she traveled. It nestled in perfectly next to the framed drawing of a girl and a horse.

 **2034 Egypt:** Seeing the ancient pyramids light up from the flares of the fireworks made her feel small, made her contemplate her life and just how insignificant she really was in the grand scheme of things. She was ready to leave, even if it was prior to midnight, to move on before the tears that gathered in her shimmering eyes fell. Just as she began to turn around to make her way through the crowd, his warm body enveloped her from behind with one hand rubbing soothing circles on her abdomen as the other gently brushed her hair off her neck. The countdown began the moment his lips placed soft tender kisses along the curve of her neck. It was the first time he had spoken during their little New Year's tradition outside of that very first year. Each kiss was met with a hushed yet powerful whisper, _"You're beautiful." "You're strong." "You're full of light."_ She turned her head slightly to face him, her eyes filled with wonder at how this man could make her feel bigger than anything, even herself. His shining affectionate eyes spoke of a wisdom and understanding that she knew she would find nowhere else on the planet. She leaned in closer, her breath ghosting over his face as her lips shakily brushed over his. His low whimper at her emotion filled kiss caused her heart to clench and her lower half to tighten as his fingers gripped tightly into her shirt. Her eyes filled with tears yet again but this time for a reason she couldn't even explain to herself. She was the one to flash away that year not daring to look back as she left him alone in the dust.

 **2035 Agra:** She had loved every second spent in India. The culture; the people, the sights and sounds, and it all shined through on this New Year's Eve night. She took to the center of the makeshift stage, joining a group of girls she had befriended, to perform the spiritual and sensual art of belly dancing for the crowd. She felt his eyes follower her every move. Her eyes scanned the crowd finding him standing right in the front row directly in front of her. The heat and desire from his gaze as he watched her body bend and twist had her burning from the inside out. Her keen senses zeroed in on the clenching of his fists causing her to smirk underneath the light fabric covering her mouth. When the dance was done he met her off to the side. She could clearly see the struggle he had over himself from the constant shift in his eyes from yellow to gray. His hands were clenched behind his back as he leaned in, barely breathing a kiss over her covered lips before he was gone with leaving the echo of his growl in his wake. It wasn't until later after hours of perplexing thoughts over his reaction when she realized the ancient etiquette of the area; one does not touch without permission. The female form in this culture was to be revered and cherished. She grinned like a fool for weeks.

 **2036 Stockholm:** She searched the boat she had chosen to watch the night's festivities from with a sigh of disappointment when she couldn't find him once they took to the water. She stood by herself at the bow of the ship an hour before midnight, his name an unconscious whisper that fell from her lips. She grinned as she felt him cage her in against the rails and as she leaned into his embrace, wrapping her arms around his, she could feel his breath catch against her back. It was peaceful and somehow right as they watched the lights change in the town on the water's edge. As the countdown began he placed his chin on her shoulder whispering in her ear how she held him prisoner and enslaved to the one night a year his lips were able to meet hers. She turned so swiftly she had to stifle her giggle at his surprise. She gripped the collar of his coat in both hands and yanked him into her lips. But of course, he was not to be out done, his arm banded around her waist as his fingers dug into her hair knocking her cap from her head, causing her hair to blow wildly around them as he bend her slightly over the rail and kissed her with a pent up need that scorched her from the inside out. While she tucked herself in early that morning to catch a few hours rest before her afternoon flight a sense of surety bubbled within her over what she was beginning to understand. What she was finally starting to admit to herself that she wanted. She drifted off to sleep with a content smile as a plan began to formulate in her mind.

 **2037 Rome:** She was slightly nervous about the possible message he might read into this destination. But after last year, she was ready to toe herself into the waters of possibilities. She met his hopeful eyes from across the street. The sun was just setting as she waved her hand in invitation towards the empty seat at her table for two on the patio of the small Italian restaurant. He walked across the street with a small bashful smile as he produced out of thin air a single long stem white rose. They ate, they laughed and they talked all the while as they strolled the streets with their arms linked. She was having such a relaxing and enjoyable time with him that when he stopped her beside the Trevi Fountain she arched a brow at him with a confused grin. Using his arm that was linked with hers he wrapped it behind her back and slowly pulled her in close as he took a step into her, his eyes shining with a hope that rendered her speechless. His other hand cupped her cheek as he leaned down pressing a gentle but deep kiss to her lips. He pulled back resting his forehead against hers staring into her eyes, searching for the purpose behind her choice of location. She smiled softly running the backs of her fingers down his scruffy cheek whispering, _"Happy New Year Klaus. Goodnight."_ She gave his lips a final peck before turning to walk away into the night as she nibbled on her lower lip to contain her beaming smile.

 **2038 Paris:** She wanted so badly to ask him up to her hotel suite and by the look in his eyes he wanted to same. But there was this underlying unspoken understanding that if she did, and if he did, that would be it. There would be no turning back. They had walked the streets of Paris starting in mid-afternoon and ending late into the night, taking in all the sights with their hands and fingers linked between them. It had been magical, beautiful and filled her with so much passion for life, and for him, that she couldn't see straight, let alone think. She smiled gently, hoping it would soften the blow to his ego that this just wasn't the time. He smiled just as tenderly and bid her a goodnight with a delicate kiss to her lush lips. It wasn't until the doors to the elevator slid shut and it started to rise when she realized what he had seen in her eyes that had him looking so damn pleased. Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes widened. He read that she wasn't ready, but he seen the deeper _yet_ written clearly on her face that she was having a hard time hiding anymore. The next morning before she left she went back to the Pont des Arts Bridge overlooking the River Seine. She laid her hands on the railings edge gazing at the river before a lock nestled in with the other caught her eye. It was an intricate piece that stood out as much as it blended in. Etched onto its front was an infinite symbol with the words _Last Loves_ below it. She was sure her smile had blinded the people around her as she walked to her waiting cab.

 **2039 Tokyo:** He found her at sunset walking in Hama-rikyu Gardens. The weather just warm enough to get away with a light jacket and it matched her inner mood beautifully. His smile was filled with delight at seeing her. Hers was filled with a warmth she could no longer hide, nor did she want to. They spoke in hushed voices as they strolled through the gardens and caught up with each other's previous year. They laughed heartily along with the other merry-goers as the anime themed parade pasted them by. She teased him over not dressing in costume for the occasion while he smirked devilishly back, his husky whisper in her ear of how much we would enjoy seeing her dressed in such provocative apparel sent shivers down her spine. That New Year's night as the clock struck midnight and the fireworks boomed and lit up the night sky, the two were caught in a world of their own inside a private gazebo overlooking the water. Her back was pressed against a pillar with her lips molded to his as their hands touched and roamed each other's bodies. It had seemed like only minutes had passed, but when they finally broke apart with their heavy breaths mingling between them she glanced around to find the streets had cleared of all other walks of life. The look in his eyes spoke of the fire raging inside of him just as she was sure hers held the same. It took every ounce of self-control they had to break apart. They walked slowly backwards two steps away from each other, both knowing it was not the right time, both releasing a longing sigh before they flashed away from the temptation the other carried.

 **2040 New Orleans:** This year he could not track her down, no matter how hard he tried. He sighed as he leaned forlornly against the balustrade watching the festivities below him on the streets of New Orleans, wondering what he could have done wrong last year to have her disappear on him. He knew she was alive and well, he had many sources to confirm it as so. Just a week ago she was off spending the Christmas holiday with her aging Mother and now she was nowhere to be found. So caught up in his morose thoughts he failed to catch her scent as she approached him from behind. It was the hand on his arm turning him and the solid thud of her favorite bag hitting the balcony floor that drew his attention and widened his eyes just before they fell slowly shut as her lips tenderly brushed over his own. Her fingers rubbed over his pounding heart, soothing away the ache that had formed there at her disappearance, as his hands cupped her jaw. He pulled back slightly, looking at her with that wonderful hope that she loved and mixed with a fear that she couldn't wait to take away. His mouth opened to ask, she was sure, what her being here meant. She shushed him quietly, her finger reaching up to cover his lips as she spoke instead, _"It's been longer than a year but only a quarter of a century."_ She whispered tenderly as she caught sight of his throat bobbing as he gulped, _"But here I am, at your door, ready. That is,"_ She smiled affectionately, _"If you'll still have me?"_ His face lit up brighter than she had ever seen, his breath rushed out of him tickling her lips as she felt his body sag in relief just before his lips crashed to hers in a passionate kiss. His fingers tightened in her hair as hers slid up his chiseled chest and neck to hold the ends of his hair in her grasp. His husky and elated voice washed over her in between each brush of his lips and swipe of his tongue. _"Always."_ He whispered. _"Forever."_ He groaned. His eyes were shinning with a happiness she was sure he had never known, and one she couldn't wait to discover right along with him, as he smiled widely and said, _"Welcome Home Caroline."_ She cupped the side of his scruffy face, her thumb rubbing over his dimple, _"Happy New Year Klaus."_

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Next up will be updates for previous works and Above All Else. I have a plan in my head for all my updates but I'm waiting until it is officially 2017 for me to announce it! (2016 was such a jerk when it came to plans.)

Also, I made five different graphic frames to go along with this story. You can find them on Tumblr under the tag, A Klaroline New Year's Tradition. As well as on my Tumblr page. They are posted in five different parts.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope 2017 is a wonderful year for you all!


	22. Lovely Time of Year

**Lovely Time of Year.**

 **Written for, _theironunderneath_ , for the Klaroline Winter Wonderland Gift Exchange.**

The Prompt/Summary:

Alternate Universe. Fluff. Hurt/Comfort. Set after Season 4. Klaus and Caroline try to bring Kol and Bonnie back from the dead.

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Her lungs burned with a heavy exhaustion and a pain that she hadn't thought she would feel again since becoming a vampire. Her legs ached with the exertion from flashing through the woods to get away from the gathering down by the lake where everyone else was commemorating the return of summer after their final year of High School. The noise of everyone laughing and having a great time had become too much for her to handle after her forceful little chat with Jeremy.

Caroline stopped running and bent her body forward to place her hands on her knee as she caught her choking breath. She squeezed her eyes shut tightly trying to block out what she had learned. Feeling her chest being to ache with a pain she wished wasn't real she drew in a deep breath and straightened her body out, clenching her jaw to force all the riotous emotions away just for a little longer.

She glanced around to see where she was only to find that her feet had inadvertently led her to the one place she didn't want to admit made her feel safe. Not that the man himself would be here, Mr. I'll-Be-Your-Last-Love-However-Long-It-Takes was off gallivanting around New Orleans while her world was falling apart.

Caroline scoffed quietly as she slowly stepped out of the wooded lot at the edge of Klaus's Mystic Falls property. Wasn't just like all the men in her life to be gone when she needed someone the most? Hell, all of her friends if she was being honest. Elena was off sexing it up with Damon-The-Epic-Douche-Salvatore; Stefan was off clearing his head after Silas had been dropped in his watery grave. Tyler, she sighed, Tyler was off in some mountain range with a pack loving his life and decidedly not coming back. They had talked and Caroline was surprisingly okay with it. They had long ago grown apart and if they continued trying to hold onto something that was no longer there they would only hate each other in the end. And she didn't want that. He had admitted to having some type of deeply hidden feelings for Hayley but had never even dreamt about acting upon them while the two of them were together. Caroline believed him, no matter what could be said about Tyler, he had grown into this very loyal person after many, many mistakes. So with a slightly tearful phone call they officially ended things as friends.

Caroline reached the back of the Mikaelson home and silently crept in through the back door with a huff, _no locks needed for the Original Family it seemed, who would be stupid enough to steal from them?_ She thought with a halfhearted eye roll.

The instant she closed the door behind her she was hit with the scent of Klaus and the reason she was here in the first place fell over her like a truckload of cement.

Bonnie, she thought with a choking whimper as she padded silently up the dust covered stairs, using the hand rail to help pull her heavy body up them. She had cornered Jeremy and after putting the pressure on him in a way that only she could, she learned that Bonnie had died. Bonnie had died bringing him back and had been dead since the night of graduation and no one else knew.

She knew Jeremy had said more to her, something about him speaking with Bonnie and Kol of all people, or ghosts in this case, but she was too upset, too depressed to even begin to process what he had told her.

Caroline's eyes welled up as she shuffled into Klaus's dark studio. The smells of paint, mineral spirits and Klaus were stronger in this room even if it had been a while since he had been here, giving her a soothing sense of comfort as she collapsed onto the sheet covered chaise. Her body instantly curling into a ball as her tight hold on her emotions broke leaving her sobbing and shaking until she unknowingly drifted off into a fitful slumber.

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The car bounced down the dirt and rocky lane, sunlight flickering through the trees as Klaus's fingers tapped the steering wheel in impatient irritation as he swerved around yet another towering pine before coming to a stop.

He had received word that the protection spell surrounding his Mystic Falls property had been breached. If it had been any of his other homes around the globe he would have sent one of his trusted minions to scout the situation out. But with all that was happening in New Orleans he only trusted himself to discover just why someone had sought out this particular home. With the wondering and worry over whether it was one of the ragtag clan of Mystic Falls or the more dreaded option that had his blood pressure rise in anger and fright, that is was one of Marcel's followers attempting to dig up leverage on him, he had hopped in his jet and made it here within a few short hours.

There were far too many things here linking _her_ to him and Klaus could not have Marcel finding out about her.

Parking his vehicle on outer rim of property Klaus flashed with a stealthness only achieved with his years of expectance and practice to the outer wall of his home before silently climbing down through the cellar door.

His full body was on high alert, trying to ascertain just who and how many were infiltrating his home. As he made his way up the stairs into the back of the kitchen he caught the faint hint of lavender and vanilla which instantly relaxed his ridged posture.

Caroline was here. He thought with a smirk before his brows wrinkled in confusion as to why she was here rummaging through his home. He paused scanning with his keen senses, in Kol's room no less. Creeping steadily closer he bit back a chuckle as he overheard her muttering as she tossed items about the room.

"Stupid old as dirt crazy unorganized jerk. You'd _think_ for an Original you would have learned some type of cleaning skills but _no_!"

Klaus felt his heart flutter as he leaned against the doorframe, she as just as beautiful as when he last saw her. Her snippy remark about his late brother brought forth a chuckle he couldn't hold back, "Kol always was a slow learner."

Caroline's eyes widened in surprise, turning on her heels she dropped the box in her hands, "Klaus! You scared me! What are you doing here?"

Klaus pushed himself off the doorframe and strutted into the room with his hands behind his back, "I could ask you a similar question." He stopped directly in front of her, his breath coasting over her face as he spoke softly with a gentle smirk, "Hello Caroline."

To say he was relieved it was her that had broken into his home would be an understatement. Though it still left him wondering just what possible reason she would have for riffling through Kol's things, his eyes narrowed as the glanced over her shoulder, and was she organizing them?

Caroline brushed her hair behind her ear with a nervous grin thinking that if she knew he would be here she would have paid more attention to herself and at least looked in a mirror this morning. She could only guess how ragged she looked after falling asleep crying on a slightly dusty sofa. "Hey."

Klaus arched a brow at her with his eyes opening just a touch. Caroline huffed at the clear statement on his face of wanting to know why she was here but chose to ignore it. "So, how's New Orleans? Is the food, music and culture still living up to your expectations?" She cringed at his dimpled smile.

"I'm flattered you remembered my message." Klaus tilted his head to the side with a pleased smile, "Though I never did receive a response from you." He chuckled as she huffed with her patented eye roll, "New Orleans is doing well. It's still standing at least."

"Wow that must be hard for you, leaving an entire town standing."

Klaus swiped his tongue over his lips as he stepped closer to her, "I'm well aware of your deflection and distraction techniques Caroline. So why don't you just cut straight to the point on why you are pilfering through my late baby brother's things?"

He watched as her face fell, a far off look taking over her eyes as she wrapped an arm across her body rubbing her hand up and down the other as if trying to hold herself together and ward off a chill.

"Caroline?" He questioned her cautiously.

Her blue eyes flicked up to his and it was only then that he noticed the tears gathering in their depths as her lower lip began to tremble. He remembered this look well; visions of standing in front of her just after he had buried the twelve witches flashed through his mind. He swallowed down wondering what could have possibly put such a devastated and haunted look on her lovely face again. A small part of him breathed the strangest sigh of relief and it took him only a moment to connect the dots as to why.

He had deeply regretted how he had denied her comfort back then, how insensitive he was to her in his petty anger. How he had had the chance then and there to show her he wasn't the completely terrible person she thought him to be, yet he blew it. If it hadn't been for Silas attacking him he would have chased her down and made it right.

It seems he may just have that chance to right that grievous wrong now.

A single tear welled up and fell over her cheek, "Bonnie's dead."

His eyes widened in a shock he knew he shouldn't feel. The young Bennett witch was a powerful witch indeed but she was always disregarding her own life for those around her so it was bound to catch up to her someday. And he knew just how much the young witch meant to Caroline, he had witnessed it firsthand.

Caroline began shaking before him; it seemed as though once this dam was opened there was no holding it back. It made him wonder how long she had been dealing with this grief alone.

"Bonnie's dead. She's been dead since graduation. She wanted to help Elena and bring Jeremy back. I…I'm such a horrible friend that I didn't even question it, when Bonnie took off and was only emailing or texting for weeks. Weeks Klaus! I was so caught up in my own drama that I didn't even notice that my best friend was dead."

Her voice was choppy; her arms were now wrapped around herself as she bent over in pain as she explained to him with tears streaming down her face. Klaus didn't think twice, he easily pulled her arms from around her torso and drew her into his embrace.

Caroline wrapped her arms around his back, gripping his shirt in her hands and pushed herself as close into him as she could, as if holding onto him for dear life as she sobbed.

With her face buried in his neck as it was, combined with her broken hiccupping sobs Klaus could only catch a few words here and there as he shushed her, rubbing a hand over her back in long strokes and brushed his fingers through her snarled hair combing it smooth again.

"Such a bad friend…Bonnie's not supposed…can't be…Jeremy saw…Kol said…I have to…need to find…"

In the back of his mind he registered the smells of his studio on her and it made him curious as to why but a single name in her crying caught his attention. He gently gasped her shoulders pulling back slightly to look into her blood shot eyes. A rush of sympathy hitting him as he gazed at her tear soaked face.

Gently brushing her tears away with his fingertips he asked her calmly, "What is this about Jeremy seeing Kol? What did Kol say to find?"

Caroline seen the determination in Klaus's oddly soft eyes and latched onto it to find her focus once again. She began to speak only to clear her throat in embarrassment at how scratchy her voice was, "Jeremy died. And when someone dies and is brought back they can see and talk to people on the Other Side. Bonnie and Kol I guess struck up this odd friendship. Though Jeremy said that it started with Kol pestering Bonnie all the time." She quirked an eyebrow at him, "It must be a family trait."

Klaus chuckled lightly, glad to see her slowly returning to her usual self, "It's a Mikaelson trait. Some may call it pestering, though in Kol's case I do not doubt that to be the case, while I like to think of it more as charming when coming from myself."

Caroline scoffed lightheartedly as she pulled away from him wiping her face off with her hands, "Nope. You are definitely more of a pest than a charmer."

"Keep telling yourself so Sweetheart."

They shared a light grin before Caroline gave a shake of her head.

"So yeah. I'm here digging through this mess your brother called a room to find a book I've never seen. All I know is it is a leather bound book with no markings on the outside and extremely old. From what Kol told Jeremy it's the only one that he owns like it." Caroline glanced around the room with a hint of disgust. "Though how the hell I'm supposed to find it in this mess is beyond me."

Klaus eyed her suspiciously as she began sorting through the things on the desk, not wanting to pay attention to the slight bit of hope that rose in his chest, "So, just why does my wayward and deceased brother want you to find this particular book?"

Caroline's back stiffened, she sighed heavily before turning to face him slowly with her lower lip between her teeth. Her sad yet hopeful eyes nailed his feet to the floor, which considering her next words was more than likely a good thing.

"It has a spell that might be able to bring them back."

"Then we better start searching." Klaus said tightly before turning on his shaking heels into the closet. He needed a moment out of her sight to gather his own riotous emotions and the closet was the closest cover. Besides, knowing his brother there would be all sorts of things in here that would send Caroline into a tizzy and it would be better to spare her.

After tearing the already messy room apart over the course of a few hours they were still no closer to finding the mysterious book.

"Ugh! Why would he say it was here if it's not! You would think that he would just say where it was but no! You Original's with all your secrets and diversion tactics. Doesn't he _want_ to come back?" Caroline huffed from her place on the wooden planked floor.

Klaus closed the last drawer on the armoire with his brows furrowed. Caroline was right. Why would Kol go through this cloak and dagger routine when he could be back to the land of the living instead? He could still hear Caroline mumbling complaints under her breath and despite the situation he couldn't help but chuckle at her ire. If it hadn't been for the protection spell around the property…Klaus's head snapped up as the reason behind his brothers tactics came into play.

Klaus glanced over his shoulder at Caroline, relieved that she hadn't noticed his jerky movement. Kol knew about the spell around their home just as he knew Caroline would be the one to come to search for the book. Kol also knew that with all the happenings in New Orleans, he would be the one to fly here himself to make sure Caroline was safe. "That cheeky bastard." Klaus chuckled quietly.

Caroline's eyes narrowed over to him, "What has the cat that ate the canary smirk on your face?" Her eyes lit up as she flashed to her feet, "Did you find it?!"

Klaus stood up from his crouch, "Unfortunately not Love, though I would prefer the term wolf over cat."

Caroline pointed a finger towards him, "One, saying wolf in place of cat doesn't even sound right. And two? Are you even taking this seriously? I mean God!" She ran her hands through her hair on both sides of her head before stomping her foot, "This is Kol and Bonnie!"

Both froze as the wooden plank beneath her foot gave way with a loud crack.

Caroline's mouth dropped open as she moved her foot and bent down to pick up the pieces of the broken wood.

Klaus strode across the room, kneeling down beside her just as she pulled a cloth wrapped item from the hole in the floor she could tell from its shape it was a book. Her shaking hand moved to unwrap it before she closed her eyes and thrusted it towards him.

"I…I can't. You look."

Klaus carefully took the cloth covered book from her hands, his eyes flicking up to find hers glued to the movement of his hands as he began to unwrap it. Peeling off the cloth Klaus looked at the blank leather cover before flipping through the book its self, letting himself get pulled into the spells it held within.

Caroline's near desperate whine pulled his eyes form the book to hers, "Klaus! Is that it or not?"

Klaus closed the book with a dimpled smirk, "Looks like we found our book."

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"I don't understand what the big deal is!" Caroline yelled as she tried once again to move Klaus away from the passenger door of his car. "Kol came to me and I am seeing this through!"

"You are not coming Caroline." Klaus replied as if he was unfazed by her outburst. Truth was that if he hadn't been so wrapped up in the inner workings of the spell and all that it required he never would have told her he had to travel back to New Orleans to gather the witch. Therefore never giving her enough time to flash back to her home, gather up a few of her belongs and flash back before he could even leave the study. "I promised to phone you as soon as I found the proper witch for the spell. Do you not trust me?"

"Of course I trust you. This isn't even about that! I know that you'll call me but that doesn't matter because I'm coming."

Klaus battled down the warmth her instant admittance of trust in him brought, instead he growled with his eyes flashing with a ting of yellow, "No. You. Are. Not."

"Fine jackass! You know what? You aren't the only way for me to get to New Orleans, so I guess I'll just see you there." Caroline huffed; spinning on her heels in the dirt and began to head back towards his home.

Klaus grinded his teeth in vexation. He knew Caroline and her stubborn self would do exactly as she was threatening. She would just go to New Orleans on her own and the chances were she would run into people he would rather her not meet.

"Get in the damn car Caroline." He snarled as he held the door open for her pushing down his chagrin at falling for her tactics.

Caroline turned around and skipped her way over to the car giving him a beaming triumphant smile as she sat in the front passenger seat, "Thanks."

Klaus slammed the door closed and snarled as he stomped his way around the car to the driver's door. After sitting in the seat and starting the car Klaus turned towards her with a stern face, "You will do as I say with no questions or smart remarks. If I tell you to run, you run. If I tell you to sit you sit. If I tell you…"

"To stay I stay? Yeah, I'm not a dog or am I one of your little minions to order around Klaus."

"Caroline you have no idea just what you could be walking into." Klaus growled through his teeth.

"Then tell me. Explain it to me."

She said it so simply that it caught him off guard and made him pause. Her hand reached over the center console of the car to grasp his as she spoke softly but surely, "If it is such a danger for me to come along and if you are this worried Klaus then you need to tell me everything. Don't do to me what everyone else always does. Don't keep the truth from me because you either think you are protecting me or you think I'm not smart enough to handle it."

Klaus studied her as she quirked a slender eyebrow at him almost daring him to be like every other person in her life. His tongue peeked out of his mouth making a swipe over his lips. He wasn't one for sharing, anything really. And he was of the belief that the less others knew the better off they would be, especially those he cared for.

 _But when has that ever truly worked in your favor?_ His traitorous mind whispered.

In truth he had always kept the finer details of his plans and the events of his life to himself only because his family had the tendency to stab each other in the back more often than not. As his gray eyes focused on Caroline's firm but near pleading face he knew deep down in his very soul, if a vampire or hybrid had one, that she would never do so to him. Not now. Not with where their… _friendship…_ stood.

And that was one of the many reasons he trusted her, why he vowed to be her last love just as she was already his, whether she knew that little fact or not.

Klaus gave a small nod of his head as he started the car and glanced at her sideways with a dimpled smile, "It's quite the story Love."

Her pure pleasure at his acquiesces radiated off her in waves as she settled into her seat, "Well we have a ton of time. The drive from here to New Orleans is about fourteen hours."

Klaus's eyes widened fractionally and he couldn't help but say, "So you've looked into that have you? Hmm."

His smile grew at her indignant huff, "Purely for safety reasons. One I had to know just how far you were in case some werewolf decided to take a bite out of me and two. Well I…" She trailed off.

"Yes, I'm all ears Caroline." He said smugly.

"Oh just shut up and drive!"

Klaus laughed deeply as he pulled out of the woods and onto the road, "I was planning to take the jet."

"Yeah well plans haven't really been working out lately so there's that. Plus I have a feeling that there is no way a four hour flight will be long enough for you to explain things."

Klaus bit his tongue and pressed his lips together to hold back the pleased grin that she had searched the hours and the ways to get to him as she began fumbling with the radio as a means of distraction.

"Okay, so we have background music," Caroline leaned over the center console of the car squinting at the dash before sitting back in her seat, "About a half a tank of gas and the wide open road. So start talking."

Klaus took a deep breath before launching into his tale of finally finding a home, a place for his family only to lose it all in one fail swoop from Mikael. To how he had received a letter stating that there was a surprise and an uprising in his old stomping grounds. The surprise turned out to be the surrogate son that he thought had perished at the hand of his ruthless step father was the one leading the strike against him and his family.

Klaus waited in nervous anticipation drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as he pulled off the highway to fill the gas tank. He had finished explaining the entire situation in New Orleans almost an hour ago. And to his surprise Caroline had just hummed before turning to face the window. He could tell by the covert glances he threw her way that she was deep in thought by her reflection in the tinted window but he failed to read just what those thoughts were.

As the car jolted over the driveway into the gas station so did it seem that Caroline was jolted from her thoughts.

Turning in her seat to face him Caroline arched an eyebrow, "So we've moved up on the totem pole from proving you're the Alpha Male to the King of everything have we?" She said with just a hint of sarcastic laughter causing him to chuckle cockily.

"Nice to see you remember Love." He said with his head cocked to the side before leveling her with an intense gaze, "Though every King is only as good as his Queen."

"Aw, what a pity." She delivered with a sassy grin only to continue at his questioning look, "Doesn't that just speak volumes about her? What with your attitude. What is it again? Crush first, try to fix it later."

Klaus huffed bashfully at her cutely tilted head and fluttering eyelashes before smirking smugly, "Well I am still learning and thankfully my Queen is rather marvelous. She likes teaching me things such as kindness, forgiveness and pity. I reckon if she came to see my workings in the Kingdom she'd be quite proud of my dealings and my steadier hand with others. I've even made a few new friends."

Caroline rolled her eyes at his little speech before tossing her head back in laughter, "By friends I'm sure you mean people you have threatened…" Her voice trailed off to a stop as a far off look overtook her eyes as a song began to play on the radio.

Noticing her change in demeanor Klaus laid his hand on her thigh, "Caroline? Are you alright Love?"

Her glossy blue eyes looked at him and with such a heartbreaking childlike tone she murmured, "What if we fail? What if I can't bring her back?" Watching her lower lip wobble sent a stabbing pain through his chest. "She's done so much Klaus. Sacrificed so much for everyone but herself. That town has killed her. Twice."

Klaus grasped her delicate hand is his, "That town kills everyone Caroline."

He watched in awe of her inner strength as a resolute look fell over her lovely face, every word she spoke was punctuated with a firm nod of her head. "Yeah well, no more. I'm getting her back and taking her the hell out of there. For good this time."

Klaus grinned cheekily at her, "I hear New Orleans is quite lovely this time of year."

Caroline rolled her eyes good heartily as she pulled her hand out from under his to point a finger at him with her eyes narrowed, "Don't push it buddy."

He caught her grin she attempted to hide as she turned away opening the door to leave the car.

"As you wish my Queen." Klaus stated in a sure tone, chuckling lowly as her back stiffened and she peered over shoulder at him to catch his full out dimpled smirk.

Caroline tossed her head back straight with a huff and her chin held high as she shut the door of the car and strutted into the gas station with her glorious golden locks bouncing across her back.

"Simply marvelous." He uttered in laughing wonder.

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For a single moment as they walked down the crowded streets in the center of New Orleans Klaus allowed himself to be captivated by the awe on Caroline's shining face as she took it all in. For a single moment it was just as he had always imagined it to be; them walking side by side, him having the chance to show her something new, someplace she had never seen before, a place that meant so much to him. What was surprising, something he had never even given a thought to, was the fact that he felt as if he was seeing it all for the first time right along with her.

Caroline's bouncing excited steps, her brilliant smile, her gorgeous blue eyes that never stopped moving as she seen something new on each and every corner made him forget, if only for a single second, why they were there.

As well as all the reasons why he didn't want her here in the first place and how, much to his own chagrin, he had caved and allowed her to even set foot in this blasted town with all the dangers lurking around every corner.

"Caroline, I believe it is past time to get you to the safe house I spoke of."

"Why? Ashamed of me already?" Her grin fell as she noticed his nervous and downright skittish way his eyes continuously scanned around the area. Bumping her shoulder into his, "Hey, I was only kidding."

Klaus looked over to her and sighed before pulling her into an empty alleyway, "Look Love, I've told you things are not safe at the moment here. And if anyone were to find out your connection to me…" Klaus gulped, mentally berating himself for ever allowing her to follow him here. Of all the people in his life she was the one he had sworn to himself he would never allow to be hurt again, whether by another's hand or his own.

"Klaus," Her soothing yet exasperated tone drew his attention away from his self-flagellation, "I'll be fine okay? I mean seriously, I've survived worse. Hell! I've survived you."

"Not funny."

His deadpanned voice made her flinch, "Right sorry." Shaking it away she began cautiously saying what she had been thinking for a while now, "So I was thinking."

Klaus folded his arms over his chest, "Well now that's cause for alarm."

"Now who's being hilarious?" Caroline's eyes shot daggers at him, "Anyways, why not let me come with you to talk to this Marcel guy?" She lessened her eyes at him and waggled her finger at him, "Don't you growl at me and put those yellow eyes away. You know they don't scare me like everyone else. Just," Caroline scrambled to word what she was trying to say, "Just think about this for a second. Unlike you, I am actually likable and believable. Let me try."

Klaus's eyes went back to their normal coloring and even if they were as hard as steel she took it as a sign to continue.

"Right now, you are just the tyrant wannabe king. I told you not to growl at me mister. I don't want to hear anything about this kingdom or about all your jealousy that your surrogate son made _supposedly_ better." Caroline rolled her eyes before scoffing, "Obviously he failed in that department if it's all fire and brimstone if a witch practices their own craft and werewolf's are forbidden to even enter the city limits and yet vampires can run amok all thorough this town like every day is freaking Christmas."

Caroline rubbed her fingers over her forehead, "Honestly, I don't think either one of you should be _ruling_ anything."

Klaus opened his mouth to argue with her only to have a third voice that sent a spear of dread down his spine join them in the alley.

"I'd love to hear more from you on how you think Klaus can't rule but neither can I for that matter."

Klaus flashed next to Caroline nearly cursing when Marcel picked up on his obvious feeling for Caroline and judging by the smirk that grew on the other man's face, his impulsive move did not bode well.

Marcel stepped forward extending his hand to Caroline, "Pleasure to meet you."

Caroline scoffed pointedly at his hand and crossed her arms over her chest, "Seriously ruling? Like we even live in a day and age of kings and queens ruling the world. Really how old are you that you can't even let that crap go?" She silently berated herself for speaking without thinking and cringed internally at the dark look Klaus cast her way for it.

Marcel laughed loudly with his teeth gleaming, "You've got spunk, I like it. But to answer your question, I was turned during the civil war area."

Caroline's eyes widened, "My god! You weren't even _alive_ for knighthoods and medieval junk."

Marcel chuckled placing his hands in his pockets, feeling oddly entranced by this vivacious blonde vampire. "No I wasn't. But I was raised by this one here." He nodded towards Klaus as if that explained it all. "I didn't catch your name Sweetheart."

She stood straight and tall; knowing that Klaus was beside her, the fact that she was no coward and that this Marcel character was no older than Damon and Stefan she felt strong as she opened her mouth to answer only to be cut off by Klaus's snarl.

"And you won't be needing an introduction Mate."

"Oh come on!" he threw his arms out wide, "It's not like I mean her any harm. Besides," Marcel smirked in a very Klaus-like way giving Caroline more proof on just who raised him, "I can tell you care about…"

"Caroline." She supplied.

"Caroline. Beautiful name for a beautiful Lady." Marcel flirted and his smirk deepened at Klaus's growl of displeasure as he picked up her hand to lay a gentle kiss to her knuckles.

"Seriously?" She yanked her hand out of his grasp, jabbing her thumb in Klaus's direction, "I've had this one over here trying to quote un-quote _woo_ me for years now, and I know all his little tricks. So let's get one thing straight. I am not here for any of the little war games the two of you have going on."

"Oh, and just why are you here?" Marcel asked with a grin.

"I need a witch. I have a spell that needs…"

"No."

"Um, excuse you? I am sure being raise a Mikaelson gave you at least some type of manners and it's rude to cut a person off when they are talking." Caroline scolded him as she cocked her hip out one hand place of it with the other waved in his direction.

"Marcellus, why don't we take this conversation some place a bit more private, hmm?" Klaus asked, though Marcel could tell it was more of an order than a request.

"Fine."

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"It's not going to happen Caroline and neither would it even work." Marcel told her as he filled his glass from the table inside his parlor.

"Oh? And just why is that?" Caroline snapped at him, "Is this you trying to show your ego is bigger than Klaus's by lording this so-call power over the witches you have over our heads?"

"No it's not actually." Marcel turned to face her, handing her a drink before asking her, "What do you know about the New Orleans witch covens?"

Caroline only bit back the snippy comment she had at the ready because his question actually sounded genuine, "Nothing really. Why?"

"New Orleans witches can only practice ancestral magic, which means that they can only practice in the area they are from. Meaning…"

Caroline's shoulders slumped, and Marcel surprisingly found he didn't like this perky blonde vampire's fight deflating from her, "They can't come to Mystic Falls and preform the spell we need done. And we can't do it here because it has to be in Mystic Falls."

"Now do you understand why I can't help you?"

"That's not entirely true now is it Marcellus?" Klaus proposed from his cushioned chair.

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked skeptically watching in dread as Klaus's face formed his patented devil-may-care smirk.

"He does have one specific witch who could perform the spell." Klaus arched a brow at her before smirking into his glass.

"No!" Marcel shouted, slamming his glass on the tabletop.

"Wait!" Caroline spun back to face the angry Marcel, "Who is this witch and why can't she help?"

Klaus sat back in his chair with a pleased smirk as he sipped his drink and left this in the very capable hands of Caroline. If anyone could convince Marcel to allow Davina to work this spell it would be her.

"Because she can't!" Marcel shouted, earning a growl from both his other guests. He rubbed his forehead before sighing, "Look, she's just a kid. She has all these powers and has no idea really how to use them yet. I can't let her get hurt."

What was really bothering him dawned on her, "You love her."

"Yes." Marcel hissed before signing, "She's like a daughter to me. I have to keep her safe."

Caroline looked deep in thought as she turned away and began to pace around the room with both men's eyes following her as she did so.

"Hmm. Okay, so you are saying that she doesn't have a good teacher right?" Her eyes flashed to Marcel who answered her quickly.

"Yes."

"Okay, that part is simple. Bonnie would love to help out a fellow witch. She always had to learn on her own and I know how much that bothered her. As far as…" Her eyes flashed back towards Marcel.

"Davina." Marcel supplied having no idea just why it was that he felt he could trust this vampire he had only just met. But seeing the soft look on Klaus's face when his eyes followed her and then the way he lifted his glass with the near laughing prideful smirk when he looked at him told Marcel this was a common occurrence with Caroline.

"As far as Davina's safety is concerned I personally promise that if this spell or anyone else puts her in any sort of danger I will stop it." At Marcel's hesitant look Caroline sighed, "Look, I've lost my best friend to powers that were too strong for her to handle and the consequences too great. I never want anyone else to feel this way. Just please, let me ask her. Let me see if she even wants to help. If she doesn't I promise we will leave her alone."

"I believe you Caroline," Marcel smiled back at her soft grin only to frown and point over to Klaus, "It's him I don't trust."

"Me?" Klaus placed his hand over his chest. "Why, I've only been sitting here enjoying this finely aged scotch."

Caroline placed her hand on Marcel's arm, "Hey. I know I can't do anything about what you two have going on but when it comes to _this_? Klaus won't be a problem. You have my word Marcel." She could see him beginning to cave, "Please just let me talk to her."

"I'm right here."

The three vampire's looked towards the doorway, each in a state of shock at how silently this young witch snuck up on them.

Caroline's face dropped from her initial shock into a soft look of warmth. This girl couldn't be much older than sixteen, and coming from a life where the supernatural aspect started young herself, she felt an instant kinship with her.

"Hey, I'm Caroline."

"I know I've been listening." Davina said firmly, making Caroline feel instant respect for the girl's backbone.

"Dee, you know what I've told you about that." Marcel told her in exasperation.

The young witch rolled her eyes and pointedly ignored him making Caroline giggle which drew a smile from her.

Davina held her hands out towards Caroline with her palms facing upwards, "May I?"

Caroline smiled brightly, this young girl's confidence yet nervous demeanor reminded her so much of Bonnie when she had first discovered that she was a witch, "Of course." She answered shooting Klaus a glare when he made to rise and stop her.

Then there was no stopping anything.

The instant their hands connected an aura of white surrounded them, their eyes locking together as Caroline shared her story and true heart of the matter with Davina in the only way the witch trusted it to be done.

Once it was over Davina took a step back still holding Caroline's awed gaze.

"You don't even have a nose bleed."

Davina self-consciously wiped under her nose, "No, I don't. Why do you say that?"

"The first time Bonnie tried that spell with me she could only hold it for a few minutes and it knocked her out for hours afterwards."

Davina looked at Caroline with such a childlike gaze and her voice so small that she couldn't help but want to protect her, "Do you really think Bonnie Bennett will want to teach me?"

"I don't think it, I know it." Caroline stated confidently.

Davina nodded her head, "Okay."

"Okay?" Caroline asked hesitantly.

"I'll come with you and do the spell."

"Oh my God." Caroline's hands covered her face, "I had hoped, but I never thought…" Tears welled in her eyes before she pulled Davina into her arms, "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Klaus placed his glass on the table before walking over to Marcel and clapped him on the back, "Pack a bag Marcellus. It looks as though you'll get to visit my old village after all."

Marcel watched Klaus collect Caroline, telling them they would meet at the airstrip within the next hour and then they were gone. A smile grew over his face, Klaus remembered. All those years ago when he was still just a boy he had wanted to visit the place where his Father was from. Things had always got in the way and it had never happened. It looks like things were beginning to change. Marcel could only hope that they were for the better. Though it seemed with Caroline on Klaus's arm it was possible.

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The candles flames flared high before going out completely leaving only the fireplace to light the room. Davina's chanting stopped and she leaned on Marcel as he helped to hold her slightly weakened body as they both watched on as the group before them hugged and cried.

Well, Caroline and Bonnie were crying and if anyone saw the tears in the Mikaelson brother's eyes no one would ever tell a soul.

Davina watched in nervousness as a beaming Caroline brought Bonnie over to her.

"Davina this is Bonnie. Bon, this is Davina."

Bonnie's smile was full of warmth and gratitude as she held out her hand, "Thank you Davina. I…" The two witches sucked in a breath as their hands touched. "Wow. You really are powerful aren't you?" Bonnie said in awe as they let go.

Davina shuffled her feet, "Yeah. Not that I know what I'm doing with it half the time."

Bonnie smiled at the girl who reminded her so much of herself, "Well I know Care here already told you but I'd like to let you know that I will always be here to help you if you ever need it."

"Really?" Davina smiled widely.

"Of course." Bonnie smiled softly at the girl's enthusiasm

"Hey! I'm a part of this too." Caroline giggled as Bonnie knocked her shoulder into hers.

"Like we could ever forget about you Care." Bonnie laughed.

Caroline grasped Davina's hand telling her sincerely, "Thank you Davina. I may not know a lot about this witchy stuff but you can always count me as your friend."

Davina blushed with a nod of her head then giggled at the bubbly vampire as she turned clapping her hands as she face Bonnie.

"So, now that you are all alive and back from the dead it's time to pack a bag! We're going on a trip!"

"Why? What are we doing and where are we going?" Bonnie asked.

"Well, Davina here needs some guidance and," She leaned in with a conspiring whisper, glancing and pointing between Marcel and Klaus. "Those two need my help mending fences and whatnot."

Caroline felt her breath catch as she seen the burning hopeful look overtake Klaus's eyes. She covered it with a casual shrug of her shoulders, "Besides, I hear New Orleans is lovely this time of year."

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Reviews are like our favorite popcorn and candy; we can never have enough and that is just dandy!

For those who read _Above All Else_ , I am hoping to have the next chapter posted sometime next week! I've been super busy, like most of you I am sure, and life has been throwing me a few curve-balls. But notes have been gathered, scenes have been written and now I need to pull it all together and fill in the blanks.

Thanks for reading/following/favoriting/reviewing. I promise your response messages are coming! I truly appreciate each and every one of you!


	23. Teddy Bears and Colds

_**Summary: Established Klaroline. They've been living together in New Orleans and "ruling" semi-peacefully since shortly after Caroline's arrival.**_

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Caroline sat with her legs curled to her side on the sofa with a blanket tossed over her lap as she giggled and watched Bonnie's expressive face through the computer screen as she explained the latest trails she had gone through while helping Davina learn more about her powers.

"I'm telling you Care it's ridiculous! I mean this girl has more power in her than I did when I had the backing of the hundred witches! But can she tap into it? Nooo!" Bonnie's rant ended with a frustrated groan.

Caroline did her best not to let the giggle pass her lips, "You'll get her there Bon, it will just take time."

"I'm just glad you were able to help me talk Marcel into letting her leave New Orleans with me for a while. Those stupid witches there." Bonnie snorted, "I get that they can only practice ancestral magic but my God! They were holding this girl back! Just because they have to practice that way it shouldn't mean she should have to be so restricted."

Caroline could see just how much this was affecting her friend and she understood all the reasons behind it, "Bonnie." She started softly, "You will do fine. You'll take this girl under your wings and help her in so many amazing ways." She smiled gently, "You will give her what you never had Bon, a mentor and a friend that completely understands what it means to be a witch."

"I hope so. No one should be left alone like I was."

"I may not be psychic but I see great things for this girl's future and that is all because of you Bonnie Bennett." Caroline's head popped up and looked towards the doorway as she heard the door open then slam close. She could faintly make out Klaus's mutterings under his breath.

"Stupid blasted witches and their damn herbs."

Her mouth dropped open and she cocked an eyebrow as she looked to Bonnie in the screen who had stopped talking as she tried to listen in.

"Is the Mega Lord having trouble?" Bonnie chuckled.

Caroline waved her hand and shushed her as Klaus came into view looking rumpled as he wrestled with his jacket.

"Klaus?" She gasped lowly at the sight of his slightly pale face and the dark circles under his eyes, "Is everything alright?"

"No one was killed if that's what you are implying. Yet anyways." He growled as he continued to struggle with his jacket before finally removing it and throwing it over the back of a chair, "Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to wash this stench off." He turned to walk away before facing her once more, pointing a slightly shaking arm towards his jacket, "Feel free to burn that while I'm gone."

Caroline drew back in surprise but before she could open her mouth to reply he had stormed out of the room and up the stairs, slamming their bedroom door behind him.

Her widened blue eyes looked at Bonnie's puzzled face in the screen.

"What the hell was that Care?"

Caroline slumped against the back of the sofa rubbing a hand over her forehead as she picked up her phone off the seat next to her, "I don't know but I'm going to find out."

Hitting the contact for one of the witches in the coven Klaus went to see today she pressed the speakerphone option, only having to wait for two rings before a woman's voice echoed through the room.

"Caroline! Please promise me you will never skip out on a meeting of the factions again!"

Caroline could hear the frustration mixed with an undertone of laughter in the woman's voice, nibbling on her lower lip she looked towards Bonnie and sighed, "What happened?"

"Well as you know our coven leader has been down with the flu," Her voice took on a softer tone, "She thanks you for the care basket you had sent over a few days ago by the way. She is quite taken with those adult coloring books you sent."

"Great! I knew she'd love those. Mandalas are a great way to pass the time when you're sick." Caroline glanced at Bonnie to see her raise an eyebrow at her blatant distraction. Letting out a forlorn sigh she asked, "So what happened today?"

"That Hybrid of yours came in with no respect for who we are or how we do things. First he demanded to speak with our coven leader and when he discovered she was sick he dared to laugh and mock our way of life. The ass actually said that as witches we should have magiced it away. We don't use our magic for personal gain, we never have. Our coven does not believe in such things you know that Caroline." The anger and disgust was heard loud and clearly through the phone.

Caroline groaned in frustration, "He looked a little," She searched for a word to describe just how _off_ and not himself Klaus had looked after he came home. Caroline cringed at the giggle coming through the line as she watched Bonnie perk up through the computer screen.

"Sick?" The witch laughed, "We kept him out with a barrier spell but that didn't stop us from hexing him."

Caroline winced her eyes at Bonnie who was stifling her giggles behind her hand, "Hexed him how exactly?" She asked cautiously.

"He wanted to mock our ways and our, how did he put it? How if our coven leader as so powerful she should rise above petty human ailments?" The woman sounded entirely too proud of herself for Caroline's liking as she continued, "The hex made it so he would understand just how it felt to deal with something as a petty and weak as a human ailment. It should run its course in seven to ten days, just as the typical human flu would."

Bonnie began laughing hysterically as Caroline grumbled a goodbye after a few unsuccessful attempts to get them to break the hex. Resting her elbows on her knees she dropped her head onto her hands while thinking that maybe she shouldn't have skipped what was supposed to be an easy meeting for her Skype date with Bonnie or at the very least she should have sent Elijah.

"Oh come on Care, I'm sure it wouldn't be that bad." Bonnie raised her hands in surrender at Caroline's withering glare.

She ran her hands through her hair with a groan, "Ugh! Not that bad? Seriously?! Do you have any idea how long it took me to get him and that coven on semi-civil speaking terms? And now this! God! It's going to take so much more than a simple barrier spell to keep him from killing them when this is all over." She finished with a shout of frustration, her head falling back against the sofa as she tossed her arms into the air.

"I'm sure you'll figure something out Care, you always do."

Rolling her head to the side she gave Bonnie a halfhearted grin, "Thanks Bon." Sighing deeply she sat up straight, "Alright I should go," Her eyes flicked towards the ceiling before looking back at the screen, "check on the patient."

Signing off with Bonnie and after closing her computer Caroline stood, carefully folding the blanket before heading up the stairs. The shower had cut off halfway through her conversation with the witch, she had vaguely thought it was odd that Klaus never came back down the stairs ready to rip off heads, but at least now she understood why. She could only guess at what she would find behind the closed door of their room and as she cracked the door open and took a look she slumped her shoulders with an empathetic sigh.

Klaus lay sprawled across their bed sideways, his hair still damp from the shower, wearing nothing but a pair of boxer shorts. And his entire body was covered in goosebumps as he laid there shivering.

As quietly as possible she crept over to the bed, set on moving him so he would be more comfortable and under the covers. The moment she took hold of his legs to shift him, she jumped back in surprise as he knelt on the bed hissing angrily.

"I'll kill those blasted witches!" Klaus growled as he tried, and failed, to lift his body off the bed and knock away Caroline's hands as she tried to keep him still.

"Oh no you won't. Not today, not ever." She cringed at how hot to the touch his skin was and how easily it was for her to manipulate him to lay back onto their bed. "You mister are staying right here in this bed until this passes."

Klaus's feverous and glazed eyes looked up at her near wildly, "And just how long do you reckon that will be Love? I'm the Original Hybrid, they have a few hours at the most before they will pay for this with their lives."

Caroline rolled her eyes with a huff, "Okay Mr. High and Mighty, first off; again no killing and second; this will be more like seven to ten days. Less if you listen to me."

The way his eyes glazed over she could tell she had lost him somewhere in translation.

He lifted his arm weakly, clumsily running his heated fingertips over her cheek with a goofy grin on his face, "My you are a beautiful one aren't you Love? Do I tell you often of your beauty?"

Caroline smiled gently at him as she took his hand and lowered it to his chest, "Yes you do." She giggled lowly at his beam of pride.

"I should paint you. You have a paintable face." Caroline had to once again force him to stay in bed as he went to rise for what she could only surmise to be his art supplies.

"Hey, hey. There will be plenty of time for that later. Right now I need you to listen to me and rest okay?" She spoke with a question but it carried the weight of a demand to which he thankfully responded to with a nod of his head.

Once his eyes had fallen shut, Caroline sagged as she sat carefully on the bed worrying a hand over her face, "And the fever delirium begins." She whispered to herself, looking at his softly snoring form with a tilt of her head, "I wonder if human medicines will work on you?" Deciding it wouldn't hurt to try she sent a quick text off to Ryan, one of the hybrids that she refused to call a minion, asking him to grab some Motrin from the store along with a list of a few other things she knew helped her when she had been human and sick.

 _Day Two:_

The medications did not work.

The witch's hex was a powerful one, not granting Klaus any quarter or relief. He faded in and out of consciousness, sometimes he would see and speak to her in short clipped sentences before falling back asleep while others he would stare straight through her like she wasn't even there.

Caroline spent the whole of the first two days changing the cool damp rag on his forehead, covering and recovering him after he would kick his body free of the blankets and alternating between soothing him and wrestling him back to the bed.

"You must leave Bekah."

His weaken raspy voice pulled her away from her book as she lounged beside him on the bed.

"Please sister, if Father finds you in here he will get the whip and this time he might turn it on you. I am too weak to protect you right now." Klaus's head lulled to the side with his eyes pointed downwards as if he was ashamed, "You know how he demands I heal alone after his beatings."

Tears filled Caroline's eyes at the memory that held Klaus captive in his fevered haze. She slid down the bed and cupped his chin, lifting it to force him to look her in the eyes, "Hey, hey. It's alright. You're okay."

Thankfully he listened to her soothing voice; he offered her a small bashful smile and promptly fell back asleep.

 _Day Three:_

Worried over his fever and delirium she felt a sense of accomplishment when she was able to get him to take small sips of water every now and then. Only that relief wasn't long-lasting when he started to violently dry heave before emptying his stomach of all the water he consumed.

She shivered at the thought of what else could happen if she managed to get some soup in his system. She promptly decided against it, figuring that since he was the Original Hybrid he would be able to manage a few days without nourishment. She didn't even want to _think_ of what it would do to not only their relationship but to his dignity if she had to clean that sort of mess up.

She was fairly sure if that were to happen then as soon as he was well, he would hunt down a white oak stake to do himself in, pending of course that he didn't take her right along with him.

 _Day Four:_

Caroline felt as if they were granted a small reprieve when he was more lucid during the day. Klaus was weak and still slept a lot but during the moments when he was awake he was able to recognize her and hold small conversations. Most of those conversations though consisted of him threatening blood and gore towards the witches that put him in this predicament. Caroline chose to bit her tongue and not argue with him, she knew at the moment it would fall on deaf ears. Besides that, the odds of him remembering half of what he said were slim; because what was it they said about fevers? That when they first came down they would come back twice as fierce?

 _Day Five and most of Night Four:_

Klaus lay shivering on the bed so strongly that it was shaking the headboard. Every time she moved to get up and add more wood to the fireplace or even shifted on the bed he would latch onto her arm, cradling it like a child would his favorite teddy bear.

Which gave her an idea.

With a devious smirk she wrangled her arm loose from his hold and quickly flashed off the bed. Glancing over her shoulder she couldn't help the soft giggle as she took him in.

Klaus was cocooned within the blankets, one arm hanging out across the bed where she had just been, his raspberry lips were pressed into the sweetest little pout she had ever seen on him. One she was sure she would never see again.

Heading over to the curio cabinet he had installed in their room for her to store all of her things that held precious memories for her, she opened the glass door and pulled out her childhood teddy bear.

From the corner of her eye she noticed the fire beginning to die out just as Klaus was overtaken by another fit of violent shivers, his voice cracking and tiny as he whined, "Cold. So cold."

Rushing back over to the bed Caroline was careful not to get too close as she carefully wrapped the teddy bear up into his arm.

Just as she had hoped, Klaus pulled the bear in close to him, burying his nose in its soft fabric and hummed at its scent that was so close to her own before falling back asleep once more.

Caroline breathed a sigh of relief as her weary body sagged in exhaustion. She quickly added more wood to the fireplace, cringing at the loud noises she was make and held her breath when Klaus shifted on the bed. Once she was sure that he was still wrapped up in the arms of the feverish sleep she flashed into the bathroom for a quick, and much needed, shower.

 _Day Six:_

After the violent shivers died down all those lovely aches and pains she remembered from her times as a human and being sick set in. Klaus kicked his legs restlessly on the bed, tossing and turning in an attempt to find a comfortable position.

She hated seeing him so distraught and wished more than anything that if she gave him some of the medicine it would actually help. A sudden idea struck her as she vaguely remembered a time when her Grandmother had been watching her while she had been stuck in bed with the flu. The medicine hadn't worked well with the body aches so her Grandmother had tenderly soothed the aches away by rubbing her legs and back.

Caroline unfolded her body from the chaise lounge, setting her latest book aside with the wayward thought that at least she had been able to catch up on her reading during Klaus's magically induced illness.

She ran a soothing hand over his forehead, thankful to find that the fever had lessened slightly, as she began whispering softly to him.

"Klaus? Sweetie, I need you to roll over onto your stomach."

She was answered with a grunt and a groan as he tried to bat her hand away from him.

"Come on Klaus. All you have to do is roll over; I'll take care of the rest." She huffed when all he did was grunt again. Taking on a firmer tone, "Klaus, roll over. Show me you are bigger than this illness."

His eyes snapped open, leveling her with an irritated look in his reddened eyes to which she just lifted a single eyebrow and waved her hand in a rolling motion. Sneering at her, Klaus huffed and roughly did as he was told.

Though his irritation didn't last long she thought proudly as she began pulling murmurs of praise and sighs of content from him as she set to work gently rubbing the aches out of his tired and strained muscles.

 _Day Seven:_

Caroline shot out of bed with a gasp, looking frantically around her for clues on what happened. She was covered up, her teddy bear next to her on the bed but Klaus was nowhere to be seen. She scrambled out of bed ready to search the house for him thinking he must have wandered off in a fever induced haze when the bathroom door opened revealing a freshly showered and fully dressed Klaus.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" She shouted in concern as she rushed over to him taking ahold of his forearm, "Get your hybrid ass back in that bed!"

Klaus chuckled at her frantic worry; cupping her cheek in his palm he offered her reassurance, "Caroline I'm fine. That blasted hex was gone the moment I woke up this morning."

Caroline's eyes searched his face as her hand and wrist ran over his forehead looking for the fever; she felt a weight lift off her when she found it was no longer there.

A bashful smile grew over his lips, his head tilting downwards in an attempt to hide the blush stealing over his cheeks, "I ah, wish to thank you for helping and taking care of me, Love. I may not remember much of the past few days but I do remember you never left my side."

Caroline playfully rolled her eyes, "Well duh! When the person you love is sick you take care of them. That's a no-brainer."

"Still, thank you Caroline. You have the hands of a Goddess that chased the ailment away." Klaus said before placing a soft and tender kiss on her lips. Pulling back he smiled, "Now, why don't you shower and ready yourself for the day, I will return before you are finished and we can go to that little French inspired restaurant you adore so much."

With a final kiss to her forehead he turned and made his way over to their bedroom door.

Shaking herself out of her elated but stunned stupor, Caroline charged after him throwing her arm out across the doorway to stop him, "Where do you think you are going?"

"I'm off to kill me a passel of witches." Klaus declared as he gently brushed her aside and opened the door.

"Oh no you don't!" She said as she took hold of his arm.

He looked down at her hand holding him back and then back up at her with squinting eyes, "Oh really Sweetheart and just why is that?"

"Because if you do I might have to resort to tactics I don't fully agree with but if the shoe fits and all." She said smartly, slowly letting go of his arm when she seen the stunned look cross his face.

Klaus cracked a smile, folding his arms over his chest with a chuckle, "And just what tactics would those be hmm?"

Caroline licked her lips before grinning, "This." With that she pulled her phone from her pocket and turned it to show him the video she had recorded of him while he was sick.

His eyes rounded seconds before he snatched the phone from her hands and immediately deleted the offending video. He handing the phone back to her with a smug smirk, "There. Now you have nothing to blackmail me with."

Caroline scoffed, "Seriously? What do you take me for an amateur?" She smirked at the flicker of dread in his eyes, "You really didn't think that was my only copy did you?"

Klaus sputtered for a few quick moments before settling on feeling offended, "I can't believe you would blackmail me Caroline. Here I thought we were further along in our relationship for such travesties."

"Oh please! You blackmail me all the time!" She widened her eyes at him while waving her hand, "Hello! Does dinner with Marcel and his twitty blonde airhead ring a bell?"

"You agreed to that and you know it." Klaus proclaimed in defense.

"Duh!" She threw her hands into the air, "Only because you bribed me with the promise of a romantic weekend way in Paris."

Klaus waved a finger at her thinking he had caught her with a loophole, "Ah see, I _bribed_ you Caroline. What you are doing is blackmail."

"Do you need a thesaurus Klaus?" She looked at him with all the playfulness gone, "Bribery is another term for blackmail so there." She explained before childishly sticking her tongue out at him.

He drew back in surprise at her blatant display of childish behavior before they both had a smile growing over their faces, each doubling over in laughter.

"So," Klaus sighed with a mocking pout after their laughter calmed, "No killing the witches then?"

"No." She quickly pointed a shaking finger at him, "And no terrorizing them either! Or their families! Or their friends!"

Klaus gritted his teeth at her serious face and waving finger, "Fine." He spat. "That means that video never sees the light of day again. I cannot have my enemies seeing me so weak and pathetic."

"Deal." She agreed with a nod of her head, "I mean come on! I can't have my Mega Overlord Original Hybrid's image shattered by such a sweet and innocent video of him cuddling with my childhood teddy bear while whining for another blanket now can I?" She grinned at his blush before clapping her hands while exclaiming, "Oh! But I _can_ show Bekah."

"Caroline." He growled in warning.

"What? You said enemies and Bekah's your sister not you rival." She grinned cheekily.

"Debatable." He said sternly, feeling a moment of relief when Caroline shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head.

But that relief was short lived.

She flashed from their room, giggle at his shout of her name, "What? It's not like she hasn't seen you sick before!"

Klaus quickly flashed after her, hoping that during his bout of sickness his sister had steered clear of this house and was not home. His body froze and his eyes widened with a gasp of, "No." falling from his lips when he heard Caroline bump into someone on the lower level of their home.

"Caroline! What's with all the running through the house Darling? You know Elijah will throw a hissy fit if he sees you." Kol's chuckling voice drifted through the house and up to Klaus's ear.

"Oh I think he'll give me a pass on this one." Caroline's giggles reached his ears as he flashed into the room. "I have a video you just _have_ to see."

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Yes I know I have a lot of other things to write and I promise I am getting work done for them. This drabble was for my dear friend, delerithmoriwen, she hasn't been feeling too well and wanted a Klaus sick drabble. I hope you all enjoyed it! Thanks so much for reading!


	24. The Witch's Brew

Two Drabbles in 24 hours! YAY!

This was written for the lovely and talented _**cupcakemolotov**_ for the Klaroline Valentine Gift Exchange.

 **The Witch's Brew. SUMMARY: (Warning this is NSFW)**

 _This is only a pairing of our beloved Klaroline I promise! Any added characters are simply this; a prop. Let's pretend that Klaus only went to New Orleans because of a power struggle with Marcel. No babies or weird incest relationships or unethical relationships with doctors._

 _College was a time for new experiences and less drama Caroline had decided. So in a bold move she transferred to a college in New York City, made new friends and is working up her nerve to try something completely out of her comfort zone. She is set and ready…that is, until a certain Original Hybrid shows up unexpectedly._

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Caroline tossed her head back, fingernails clawing at the masculine arm that held her side, as her back met the cool wall of her apartment living room with a surprised yet pleasure filled moan. Her left leg hitched up and over his hips effectively pulling his lean body further into her own. Her fingernails gripped tighter into his wavy hair at the combination of his rigid shaft brushing her covered wet core and his lips and tongue doing that thing he discovered she loved on her neck just below her ear. His answering groan rumbled against her skin causing shivers to dance along her spine and heat her throbbing core even further.

His hand slid up her leg starting at her knee that was clenching his hip, following a path along the outside of her thigh, under her short pleated skirt to splay his hand over the curve of her hip. When his fingers found purchase, gripping into the soft flesh of her bottom, pulling her firmly into his slowly rolling and thrusting hips, her eyes fluttered shut as she recalled just how she ended up right where she wanted to be tonight just not with _who_ she expected it would be with.

It was unexpected but not unwelcomed.

 _A few hours earlier:_

The bar was a little smoky but seeing as she wasn't human, Caroline found it didn't both her as much as it had before. She smiled as the bartender placed her drinks down before her on the bar top with a smirk. Three tumblers sat before her, one with her whiskey and coke while the other two held something of a different nature entirely. She took the paper drink cover off her whiskey while leaving the other two untouched.

That was the beauty of being in a supernatural bar, the prided themselves on being inconspicuous. Every drink no matter if it was a simple glass of water, a round of shots or if the glass contained something from the more elite witchy menu, was covered with the colorful paper caps so that no one else would know for sure just what the patron's flavor of the night was.

Caroline took a small sip of her drink, nibbling on the straw as she glanced across the bar at Kyle who was currently playing a round of pool with his friends. His soft brown eyes flicked over to her and the covered drinks sitting in front of her on the bar, both of them raised an eyebrow as if to question the other, _"Are you sure?"_

Caroline waited in nervous anticipation before he gave her a subtle nod of his head with his silly grin, to which she replied in kind just before he was ribbed by a friend to take his shot.

Sipping through her straw she studied him speculatively for a moment while he wasn't looking. Kyle was sweet and kind and with his boyish charms and looks, yet firm muscled physique, he was quite attractive. It also helped that he was a vampire and right around her age both in human and in supernatural ages.

College, Caroline had recently decided, should not only be about learning and experiencing new things _within_ the classrooms and lecture halls; but _outside_ of them as well. She had made a vow to herself, a dare of sorts that she would reach outside of her normal comfort zone. She was a young woman by the standards of both the human world along with the supernatural one and she wanted to know more about them both.

The human world was simple. Study, go to class, join in a few social clubs, meet new people and find her so-called place within society. Well, she thought in amusement, as close to a place in society that a never aging creature of the night could find.

As far as the supernatural went, that's where Kyle came in, she mused with a grin as she glanced at him across the smoky bar where he stood laughing and chatting with a small group of his friends.

She had met Kyle when they were partnered up for a lab project. During their weeks of working together she learned that not only was he a vampire, he was almost two years older than her in human years but only a year younger than her in vampire years. He had grown in a small town, had a witch best friend and had been caught in situations very similar to her own. Right smack in the middle of the supernatural drama around him and was turned through no fault of his own as a message to a witch who had refused to help a vampire by making them daylight rings.

Not that those were anywhere near what she had dealt with, Caroline thought dryly. But they were close enough for them to form a bond over. Bonnie and Elena liked to tease her mercilessly about them becoming a couple, and no matter how many times Caroline denied it and adamantly told them how Kyle was only her friend, they never quit.

Was she attracted to him? Sure, he was cute, funny and nice. But did she feel a deeper connection to him other than their shared experienced and their thirst for knowledge and desire explore new things? No.

Once a level of trust had formed between the two of them, Kyle had introduced her to the small bar she sat in now that was aptly named, _The Witch's Brew_ , since it catered to the supernatural.

Her eyes glanced back to the covered drinks that sat on the bar. She wanted to try this, and in retrospect Kyle felt like someone she could do this with, but the real question that started plaguing her mind was should she.

Looking back at him she was beginning to have second thoughts.

Yes just like her he wanted to try new things and yes they were friends but Caroline couldn't help but think, begrudgingly so, every time she attempted something new, something outside of her normal comfort zone, about just _who_ it had been that inspired this zest for all things new in her life.

Caroline nearly snarled as she could have sworn that just by thinking of him she could smell him in the air. She closed her eyes trying desperately to center herself and push the hybrid out her mind.

"I was under the impression the deep looks of concentration were to be used _inside_ the classroom, not while sitting atop a barstool Love." The warm cadence of his softly spoken words and the sound of his humorous undertone hummed over her skin and sunk deep within her bones.

Her eyes flew open; the scathing look she had always at the ready for him graced her features as she turned to look at him, "What are you doing here?"

Klaus casually waved the bartender over and sent her a sideways smirk as he ordered himself a bourbon and refill for her. His dimples appeared as she began impatiently tapping the toes of her high heel shoes on the stools rung, "Well? Are you going to answer me or what?"

"All in due time Sweetheart." At her answering huff he chuckled and nodded at the bartender as he set down their drinks. "I see your patience has not changed a bit Caroline."

He offered her the tumbler with his lips pressed into a cheeky grin causing her to scoff as she snatched it from his hand.

"Where you are concerned? Never." She said pointedly as she removed the cover and raised the glass to take a sip only to be stopped by his hand brushing her fingers as he held her glass steady an inch from her lips.

"It's customary to wait until the toast is spoken before you drink Caroline. You'd think as the once reigning Miss Mystic Falls you would recall that little fact." He tsked.

"And just what are we toasting?" Caroline asked with a toss of her head, "Wait, never mind. The _real_ question is; why are you here?" She set her glass down to lean in closer to him hissing, "You promised to walk away and never come back after our um…"

"Rendezvous in the woods?" His husky voice did things to her that she hoped he didn't catch onto, but by the growing smirk on his face Caroline knew she wasn't so lucky.

She pulled her body away from him and his eyes that wanted to devour her, "Yes that." She snapped.

"Well then, the answer to your question lies within my toast." He nodded to her discarded drink.

Caroline rolled her eyes knowing she would have to play along if she was going to get any answers as she picked the drink back up, "There. I have my drink so get on with your stupid toast already."

"Such hostility." Klaus tsked before leaning in with a conspiring whisper, "And we both know what lies underneath all that hostility don't we Caroline?"

Caroline flushed and his eyes sparkled as he followed it from her chest up to her face.

"That's it I'm leaving." She said sternly as she moved to get up before he stopped her.

"Wait." He took hold of her arm gently and rushed out, as if he knew he was pushing her past her limits, "I'm only here to congratulate you on your choice of transferring from Whitmore to Columbia."

Caroline settled back onto her stool, "But still, you said you'd stay away."

"Technically I said I'd walk away and never come back but we never specified on just where I wouldn't be walking back to. Be that you or Mystic Falls." He said with a smug dimple filled grin.

Caroline threw her free hand up into the air, "Great! So now I have to deal with your crazy stalker tendencies because of a technicality?"

"Don't you just love loopholes?" Klaus spoke proudly as he twirled his tumbler in his hand before eyeing her with all the playfulness gone from his features, "You didn't really believe that after my moving, and dare I say romantic, declaration after your graduation I wouldn't leave myself some room to come back into your life while also giving you the space you so rightly needed to grow did you?"

The memory of that night, his words and his expression that held such honesty and sincerity flashed through her mind. It was the same look his scruffy face aimed at her now. Only now it held a small amount of, it took her a moment to understand just what it was.

Pleading.

Damn near begging, that is if the Original Hybrid was one to beg. Caroline tried hard not to let the one time she did have him begging, his voice echoing through the trees, of his pleas for her not to stop, from taking hold in her mind.

Here he was opening himself up to rejection from her; _again_. He knew damn well that the odds weren't in his favor with her yet he came here anyways. With a look she was positive that she was the only one to ever see on his stupidly handsome face.

 _For her._ It said. _Always for her._

She nearly groaned as she caved and lowered her defensive guard, settling for a snarky reply instead, "So what then? The war games in New Orleans getting so boring for you thought you'd give New York a try?"

Caroline couldn't help but soften even further toward him as the relief could be seen visibly washing over him.

"War games have an intricate balance, a set of rules and a constant push and pull that must be kept." Klaus told her sagely before turning a critical her way, "Though I am missing one vital piece to the board."

"Oh, and what's that?" Caroline asked softly with a tilt of her head.

"My Queen."

Caroline threw her head back in laughter causing her long golden curls to shake around her, "If this is your attempts to get me to come to New Orleans let me just say that you failed once again."

Klaus leaned forward brushing her hair back over her shoulder as he licked his lips and replied with a shake of his head, "No, I like my Queen right where she is; living her life safely and far away from the chaos and drama of the power struggle."

Her breath hitched as their eyes latched, both searching the other's, one for the truth and the other for acceptance.

A clearing of a throat beside them pulled them both from their daze.

"Everything alright here Caroline?" Kyle asked hesitantly.

She placed her hand on Klaus's knee as she caught his eyes flash yellow with a growl hissing from his throat. She offered Kyle her brightest reassuring smile, "Everything's fine. I'm just catching up with an old friend of mine."

Klaus nearly preened in his seat at her touch and the soft tone of her voice as she named him hers, he cared not whether that was as she indented for it to mean or not. He was hers in every sense and meaning of the word just as she was his, whether she was ready to admit it or not.

"Alright, well are we still…" Kyle trailed off.

Klaus noticed the boy's eyes flicker towards the two tumblers sitting near Caroline as she herself seemed to struggle not to glance at them as a blush began creeping up her neck.

"I don't think it's a good time," Caroline explained, "my friend here is only in town for a little while and I want to catch up before he leaves."

Klaus had a difficult time holding back a full-fledged grin at not only what she had said but the utter lack of remorse underlying in her voice.

"No problem Caroline, see you in class." Kyle offered her a smile.

With that the young lad was off leaving Klaus to narrow his eyes after him, "He didn't seem too broken up over your canceled plans."

Caroline rolled her eyes to cover up her discomfort on just where this topic would lead. And as her luck would have it, just as she was waving the bartender down to take back the two glasses Klaus stopped him and waved him away.

"What is this all about I wonder?"

Caroline shrugged her shoulders as if she hadn't a care in the world, "Nothing important."

"Well then, we shouldn't allow these to go to waste then." He said as he picked up a glass only to have it snatched from his hand.

"No! Don't!" Caroline shouted as she took the glass quickly away from him.

"Why ever not Love?" His eyes widened fractionally before his lips curved into a mischievous smirk, "What is it about this drink in particular that has you blushing such a lovey shade of red, hmm?"

Caroline clenched her jaw before mumbling out a response.

Klaus mocking, yet playfully cupped his hand over his ear, "What was that? I couldn't quite catch that over the noise of the bar."

"Ugh, I said it's a witch's tonic to boost sexual desire. There, are you happy?" She huffed.

Klaus's eyes sparkled as his dimples cut his cheeks with the force of his smile before it abruptly dropped as he caught up to just what her original plans for the evening were. "You know Caroline, if a man needs _enhancements_ at such a young and virile age to be with one as attractive and sensual as yourself, he might not be worth the effort."

Caroline groaned in a mix of embarrassment and irritation as she carded her fingers roughly through her hair, "He didn't _need_ it; it was something we agreed to try because you know college is about trying new things and all? And even still, it's not so much an enhancement as it is an enchantment to boost sexual desire, connect you further with your partner and help to bring your true fantasies to light."

His eyes turned a shade darker as he listen to her rambling explanation, slowly he leaned towards her and placed an arm on the back of her stool, his fingers making a feather light path from her shoulder to her neck as his other reached across the bar top to trace his fingertips over the rim of the glass.

Her eyes widened like a deer in headlights as the low husky rumble of his voice washed over her.

"Seeing as you and I know each other, yet had very little time to learn our likes and dislikes in my opinion, why not share this new experience with me?"

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she swallowed before she offered a hasty reply, "The point is for _both_ parties involved to try something new. Not me to be the only one who has never tried this."

Klaus slowly shook his head back and forth without breaking eye contact with her as he twirled a lock of her hair between his fingers, "There you go making assumptions again." He gave her a lopsided smirk at her furrowed brow, waving his hand at the drinks sitting on the bar, "I've never dabbled in the _sexual_ side of witchcraft."

Caroline scoffed in disbelief, "Right. Sure. You Mr. Thousand-Year-Old Hybrid himself, Mr. Sex-Appeal-On-Legs, have never tried this before."

Klaus swiped his tongue over his lips, fighting down the urge to full out laugh at her choice of phrasing, "I quite like your inner thoughts of me Sweetheart and I feel we should explore them greatly later, in a carefully inspected and precise manner," He allowed a chuckle to escape his lips at her standard scoff and eye roll combination, "But let us focus more on the underlying issue at hand here."

Caroline knocked his hand away from her shoulder, forcefully folding her arms over her chest, "And what is that?"

He tilted his chin down, all signs of humor left his eyes as they bore into hers, "Have I ever lied to you?" Klaus quickly raised his hand between then, "No, not _mislead,_ I mean actually lied to you?"

Caroline bit her lower lips before begrudgingly admitting, "No you haven't." She tried not to let the way his eyes softened and his lips curled into a small joyful smile at her admittance.

Klaus tried not to get caught up into the victorious and downright pleasing feelings that rushed through him at her, begrudging yes, but firm knowledge and admittance that he hadn't lied to her before and therefor she could trust him. Clearing his throat, "Right, so as I am sure you are aware I trust very little people I come across."

Caroline scoffed, "Understatement of the century."

"And," Klaus continued over her interruption, "Dabbling in the world of witchcraft, particularly the stuff of the more sexual nature, requires a level of trust that I am not one to offer another."

"Then why offer to drink these with me then?" She wrinkled her brow in confusion.

Klaus swallowed deeply in preparation of his own small confession, "Because I want to experience things, new and old, with you with Caroline." He smiled softly, "As much as I thought that would be hard to admit, I am pleasantly surprised to discover it is not."

"What?"

"I trust you. Especially when it comes to this area in particular. Can you not say the same?" Klaus titled his head, his eyes daring her to deny it.

Caroline stared deeply into his eyes, searching for what he had no idea, he only could hope she would find it. He felt as if the scales were tipping but in what direction he had no way of knowing, she was utterly full of surprises he had often learned.

Caroline's tongue peeked out of her mouth, wetting her lips before taking the cover off her glass and offered the other to him, "Well then, bottoms up."

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 _Present:_

Klaus had never felt as turned on in his very long life as he did at this exact moment. He thought he had craved her before, thrived on the taste of her skin and the sweet scent of her arousal during the first time they had been together but now he knew different. This concoction they had drunk together brought all of that and more to the forefront of his mind and body to the point it was nearly overwhelming. As her lithe body sensually rubbed across his own causing his eyes to roll back into his head as he doubled his efforts on her neck to distract himself from the overwhelming and pure need he felt to tell her just what his ultimate fantasy was.

He thanked and cursed this witch's tonic all in one breath; for it gave him her once again but was trying to force the words from his mouth. He decided then and there that this would be the first and the last time they used the aid of this tonic, he growled against the side of her neck at the way she arched and rolled her hips in a way that pressed her core tightly against his shaft then slid over his length. If her answering whimpers was anything to go by, she felt just as much pleasure from it as he had.

Caroline arched and rolled her hips again, chasing after the intense pleasure it gave her, her fingers gripped into Klaus's hair, yanking his head back to look him in the eyes as she whimpered and snarled, "Bed. I want you in a bed." The yellow flash of his eyes had her nipples pebbling beneath her bra and blouse with arousal.

A bra and blouse that was promptly ripped off her body, tossed to the floor within a blink of an eye along with the rest of their clothing.

Klaus flashed them to her bed only to have her change their positions as soon as her back hit the mattress, flipping him over so it was his back that bounced against it as her soft skin and curvaceous body slid over his lean warm frame.

His muscles clenched, toes curled and his hands raced to press into her hips as she began laving the cords of his neck with her teeth and tongue.

Caroline rolled and swung her hips over his, her soaking core gliding effortlessly over his rock hard shaft bring forth a moan from her throat that trickled across his skin. It was then that both pulled slightly away to look at one another, their breaths hitching as her center brushed over his member.

There was a strange echo to their pleasure, a soft underlying feeling that not quite doubled their enjoyment so much as...

Caroline furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, her tongue swiping her lips as Klaus tightened his grip on her hip before thrusting his own up against her. A trembling moan fell from her open mouth and Klaus stared up at her in wonder as he uttered, "I can _feel_ you."

"Well, yeah I would hope so." Caroline giggled breathlessly down at him with her head tilted sweetly to the side. "But seriously, what _is_ that _?"_

Klaus shook his head, "You said that tonic connects us together correct?" At her nod of yes he hummed and the shifted her body so she was kneeling above his torso. He placed a hand on her luscious bottom to keep her from dropping back down onto him in search of the friction he was sure she would crave as his other wrapped around his shaft, pumping experimentally as he studied her face.

Her pupils dilated as her eyes widened. Her head fell back with a groan as if he was touching her instead of himself.

"Well then," Klaus smirked up at her lasciviously, "I think we should explore this development further don't you?"

He gave her little time to respond as he gripped both sides of her hips, pulling her up his torso, her knees landing on the bed next to his head with her pink dripping core poised directly over his face.

The first swipe of his tongue over her slit had a low keen falling from her mouth that echoed as a rumble from his lips against her core as he felt a hint of her pleasure course through him as well.

His gray eyes blazed lustfully up at her as he pulled her body in closer to his mouth right before showing her no mercy.

The scruff on his chin rasped against her entrance as his tongue twirled and flicked around and over her swollen clit. One of her hands slapped the headboard as the other raced down to grip his shortened curls, her hips rolling as she rode his face.

Her body felt alive with erotic energy as she began to quiver in pleasure. His lips suddenly wrapped around her throbbing clit sucking and flicking his tongue bringing a loud keening moan from her before her entire body went taut just seconds before her orgasm crashed through her.

Still trembling she collapsed next to him on the bed, her heart still pounding and her chest heaving with every breath as she looked at him in blissful awe.

His eyes spoke clearly of his hunger for her, seeing her release coating his lips and chin had her core pulsing once again.

The second Klaus seen the desire take hold in her eyes once again he was on her in an instant. He used his knee to gentle knock her thighs apart before slotting his body within their soft cradle. His hand skimmed up her side to cup her breast and tweak her nipple, watching excitedly as her body arched just enough for him to slide his shaft within her honeyed depths.

Caroline's mouth fell open with a shaky sigh, her arms wrapping around him, one around his back the other around his neck. His hips rolled slowly in a constant steady pace as he braced his body above hers with a hand next to her head.

Caroline whimpered at the erotic feel of his hot shaft moving within her, being with him felt just as good as she had remembered.

But she needed more.

Experimentally she raised her hips from the bed, squeezing her inner walls tighter around his shaft. She smirked as his mouth fell open with a deep groan and his fingers dug into the bed.

So she did it again.

His eyes flashed, a growl resonating from his chest at the feel of her slick tight walls wrapped around him.

Klaus hitched her thighs high on his hips before sliding both hands by her head and under her pillows to grip the mattresses' edge.

Caroline's eye sparkled with excitement, her teeth nibbling on her lower lip as he smirked devilishly down at her just before slamming his hips against hers. Her high pitched moan only encouraged him further as he grunted and groaned while setting a punishing pleasurable pace.

Caroline's nails raked down his back as she tried to hold on and give as good as she got. The electric burning hot tingles coursed through her body make her near mindless with desire.

"Bite me!"

The demand was out of her lips, her words carried on the back of a keening cry, without any control over them.

Klaus's hips faltered, swearing he heard her wrong as he looked down at her muttering, "What?" as he stopped all movements.

Mindless to everything but her raging need Caroline gazed up at him, "Bit me. Please." She rolled her hips groaning when it caused his shaft, still sitting deep inside her, to hit a delicious spot. "Do it. It's what I want."

They stared at each other, both panting at the slow steady movements Caroline made with her hips as he kept his carefully still while he tried to shake away the shock of what she wanted and what it would entail.

A small tiny piece of her brain was amazed that she was able to voice this taboo desire. After what had happened to her as a human Caroline never imagined she would think or ask for such a thing. But at the bar one night she had overheard other vampires talking about how pleasurable it could be. Of how intense and consuming the pleasure such an act would bring when it was done mutually and the correct way.

She never thought she would trust someone enough to fulfill this craving.

Until now.

Until Klaus.

Softly gliding her hand up his back and over his shoulder to cup his face, she looked at him tenderly and whispered once more, "Bite me Klaus. I trust you."

Klaus gulped down at the honesty and need pouring out of her eyes. Images flashed through his mind of the erotic picture she painted for him. That he had never allowed someone to drink from him during sex before was a given, he had never trust another enough to do so. But gazing down at her face in wonder, his tongue licking his lips at the gentleness in her eyes and the unadulterated lust behind that, he knew this was different, _she_ was different. Caroline meant so much more to him than every person he had ever been with combined.

Banding arm around back he pulled her up into his lap, shifting them carefully to the center of her bed, his shaft never leaving her warmth as she settles over him.

"And I you, Caroline." He whispered as he cupped her cheek and began pumping his hips upwards in slowly deep.

Caroline locked her arms around his neck, his hands trailing down her body, settling on her hips.

Her breast were pressed tightly against his slick chest, her rolling hips meeting each of his thrust as their desire rose higher and higher.

With their foreheads pressed together tightly, breaths clashing in hot puffs; Klaus allowed his face to change and his fangs to drop. A groan hissing from his extended teeth at the way Caroline's inner walls tightened around him at the sight. His hips faltered minutely, his breath catching as she allowed her face to change as well.

The fire blazed through their lower halves, both beginning to tremble as their ends came closer.

"Together." Klaus uttered breathlessly, his golden eyes locked on her blood red ones.

Caroline's chest heaved as she nodded her head, both tilting their heads to opposite sides, their lower halves still rolling and thrusting together wetly.

Their fangs sank into each other's necks simultaneously, latching on and creating a feeling of fullness unlike either had ever experienced.

The instant their blood flowed into their mouths they both froze for a split second. Her core quivered around him, his shaft twitching and throbbing within her before a frenzy overtook them.

Their bodies writhed against each other, hands and nails gripping tightly as their mouths took and their bodies shook with pleasure. Caroline felt her orgasm slam into her, a screech of his name vibrated against his throat, just as his body hit its peak his groan rumbling against her skin as his released filled her.

They both fell back onto the bed, pulling their fangs from the other's neck as their faces returned to normal. They held each other's still quivering bodies with nothing but the sounds of their hammering hearts and racing breaths.

It was a comfortable silence, filled with soft touches as their bodies began to calm.

Caroline ran her fingers softly over his chest, her fingertips tracing the lines of his tattoo, "What about you?"

"Hmm? What do you mean?" Klaus continued as he brushed his hand up and down her spine, "If you couldn't tell, let me assure you that I reached my peak and quite intensely I might add." He shifted his head so he could look at her with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"No not that." She giggled as she softly smacked his chest, "I meant your fantasy. We did mine, amazingly so if I might add." She giggled again at his smug look before falling serious and asking, "But what about yours?"

Her eyes widened at the bashful blush that stole over his cheeks, "Klaus? Tell me."

He looked into her curious eyes and sighed before offering a single word.

"You."

"Okay what about me?"

Klaus rolled his eye at the fact that she was completely missing what he was telling her, "You Caroline. You are my ultimate fantasy."

"What?" She breathed in shock.

Klaus huffed but decided that since it was out in the open there was no need to hold back now, "Every sexual thought, every dirty little fantasy I've had over the past few years have all had one thing in common." His voice dropped to a husky murmur, "They all feature you as the shining delectable star."

Caroline nibbled her lower lip in contemplation, staring at her fingers as the continued to trace the lines of his tattoo she asked, "So what kinds of things did fantasy me do with you hmm?"

"She would sink to her knees as I painted on a canvas, daring me to continue without missing a single solitary line as she wrapped her glorious mouth around my cock." The way her eyes lit up as they shot up to look at him at the challenge gave Klaus the will to continue, "Her round pert little ass would be raised in the air, cheeks painted red from my hand, as I took her from behind." Her breath began to race; he could feel her heartbeat beginning to race against his side as her tongue ran across her lips, "Her beautiful breasts would sway to and fro as she rode my shaft to completion while her long golden locks brushed my quivering thighs as she shouted my name to the skies."

He fell silent under Caroline's stare, he could never tell just what she was thinking and he supposed that was part of his draw to her. She could destroy him with one look or word yet build his hopes up just the same.

Her lips suddenly curved into a salaciously wicked grin, "Well then," Her hand slid up the side of his neck to grip his hair. "It's a good thing we have all night." She said just before crashing her lips to his, her tongue slithering into his mouth.

Klaus held her tightly against him as he enthusiastically met and matched her kiss. A low growl rumbled from his chest seconds before he pulled his lips away, grabbing and rolling her giggling form over then under him.

Her giggling stopped when she took in his lustful and slightly dangerous eyes that went so well with his devilish smirk, "Then we best get started don't you think Sweetheart? After all we have a lot of ground to cover."

Caroline hitched a leg over his hips, her fingers twirling the ends of his hair, "Hmm, we really should though I am beginning to realize something."

His smirk deepened at the hitch in her breath as he tweaked her nipple between his fingers, "Do tell Caroline."

Arching her back to make room to slide her hand between their bodies she wrapped her hand into a fist around his shaft, "Even though one night will never be enough," She grinned as his body chased her hand, "I'm still too smart to be seduced by you."

She tightened her grip and quickened her pumping turning whatever he was about to say into a low moan of satisfaction before leaning up to whisper into his ear, "But that doesn't mean I won't let you try."

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I hope you all enjoyed this one as well. Above All Else update: I am nearly halfway done with the next chapter so keep your eyes peeled ;)


	25. A Blast from Future's Past Part Two

**A Blast From Future's Past: Part Two.**

Hello all my Lovelies! Please tell me you have all seen TVD series finale! Spoiler alert…KLAROLINE IS ENDGAME!

 **This is Part Two, Part one can be found in Chapter 8.**

 **Flashback in this chapter is written in italic.**

So I am so sorry for being gone for so long. Life has thrown many lemons my way, and I don't really care for lemonade at all. But I am back! And I have so much inspiration from the Klaroline promise that you can expect many updates form me soon!

I am working on the sequel to Above All Else as well as the sequels to many of the drabbles found here. I will be posting my Author's note for AAE very soon.

I want to thank you all for your support and patience between my updating. If you are ever wondering what is taking so long, want to chat or have an idea you would like me to write please feel free to inbox me here or over on tumblr.

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Caroline glanced around meticulously making sure she hadn't been followed before punching in the security code to the back gate of the property she and Alaric had purchased. As she walked across the soft grass of the backyard with the sun just sinking below the horizon, her high heel shoes dangling from her left hand, she recalled the extensive research and the color coded pros and cons list that went into procuring a residence within the New Orleans city limits.

At first, she had argued that she should gain herself an apartment in the downtown district while leaving Alaric and the girls safely housed well outside of the city. While they did go along with the private apartment, just for the sake of appearances, she spent as much time as she could here with them.

The private and gated community; Gabriel, offered them all the seclusion and options they needed. The security here was top of the line, and with a little help of compulsion, no one got in or out without their prior knowledge. It was centrally located close to the highways and their personal property's stone wall opened to Lake Pontchartrain which gave them another means to make a hasty escape if need be.

Making her way into the house she cringed slightly when she noticed the time on the stove's digital clock. With it being summer, the sun's late setting along with all this undercover and searching often made her uncharacteristically lose track of the time.

"Did I miss it?" She asked as she closed the backdoor quietly.

Alaric shut the dishwasher and turned to her, "I don't think so. The girls are listening to their bedtime story. I think if you head up now you'll catch them before they fall asleep."

Caroline gave him a nod of her head as she began to remove her short leather jacket but paused with a curious look at Alaric as he cleared his throat.

"Hmm, you might want to keep that on." He told her timidly.

"Why?"

He cringed as he pointed towards her, "There's a bit of blood on your dress."

Caroline glanced down to see blood stains covering the left side on the bodice of her lavender dress. With an irate huff, she roughly pulled her jacket back on effectively covering the offending stain.

"Do I even want to ask?" Alaric questioned as she set down her shoes and walked barefoot to the doorway. The look she tossed him as she stopped for a moment with her hand on the doorframe was answer enough for him, "I suppose not."

Caroline silently crept up the stairs, a low yet expressive husky feminine voice filtering down to her ears from the girls' bedroom. Pausing to lean against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest, a soft smile graced her lips at the scene before her as the story came to an end.

The brunette-haired woman closed the book with a sigh and rose from the bed she had been sitting on, moving to turn off the lamp that shined with a soft glow.

"Not yet." Caroline whispered wanting just a few minutes to look at the girls since she was too late to see them before they fell asleep. "How long have they been asleep?"

The woman turned around, placing the book on the night table between two of the beds, with a tired look in her eyes, "Not long." Seeing the downcast and regretful look wash over Caroline's face she added in softly, "They understand you know. And they told me to pass their love for you on for them."

The brunette woman sauntered with an almost cat-like grace towards Caroline, giving her a sideways hug and a quick kiss to her cheek, "There. At least that mission is accomplished." She added with a humorous grin.

Caroline let her hand trail down the woman's arm as she let go and went to leave the room.

"Thank you, Hayley." She offered in a quiet voice.

Hayley turned with a confused look on her face, keeping with the hushed tones as to not wake the girls, "Thank me? For what? If it wasn't for you and Alaric, Hope and I would still be, no pun intended, chasing our tails."

"No lie there." Caroline grinned cheekily bringing a huff and an out of place eye roll from Hayley, "But seriously, you being here? Helping to keep the girls safe, it means more to me than you could even know."

Hayley lifted an eyebrow and looked pointedly towards the third bed that was squished inside the room.

"Right." The two women stood next to each other, their eyes lighting happily over the three girls nestled into their beds. Both reminiscing over the well thought out argument that the three girls had with them over how they could all share a room and turn the extra guest bedroom that was meant for Hope into a large playroom instead. With Hope being a few years older than the twins, the adults had thought she would rather have her own space but they were quickly outnumbered, and happily so, when the three young girls bonded as tightly as sisters within hours of meeting just a few short months ago.

Hayley's sniffing and furrowed eyebrows aimed in Caroline's general direction pulled them both from their memories, "Do I even want to know what happened?" She asked obviously picking up on the scent of blood.

Caroline scoffed under her breath, "Let's just say the vampire I was meeting with earlier wasn't exactly pleasant. It took a little bit of ah…persuasion to get him to talk."

"Did you find out anything good?"

The hopeful look in Hayley's eyes made Caroline cringe inside, they had been looking for months for answers together about Klaus's exact whereabouts and how to wake the Mikaelson's without killing them in the process. But Hayley had been running a one woman show, carting around a child with her on top of it, for years longer. "I'm sorry Hayley. Not much. But I do have Bonnie looking into a couple more options. She should be getting back to me soon."

Hayley's lower lip pouted out further than normal as she sighed before whispering so softly even Caroline had to struggle to hear it, "If we don't come up with something soon we might not have another choice Caroline."

They had a list of about a million plans and so far, not many had worked out in their favor. The Mikaelson siblings were still laying in their coffins in a secret and highly concealed room in the basement and the only thing they knew about Klaus was he was trapped somewhere in New Orleans. If things didn't start to pan out soon Hayley was going to have to head back out in search of help from a few werewolf clans, something that set Caroline on edge considering if she was bitten the only cure was hidden away somewhere they couldn't find.

The only shining light they had at the moment was Bonnie. Thankfully she had been able to track Enzo down, freeing him from whatever had him under its thumb, leaving her to help with Caroline's cause. Not that that help had come easy. With Bonnie's underlying hatred for all things Mikaelson paired with Stefan begging for help in saving Damon it had been a tough argument. In the end, Bonnie's love for Caroline won out as well as her anger when she heard about how Marcel was keeping such a tight hold on the local witches.

"I know. Just give me a little more time before hand. I have another party to go to tonight." Caroline rolled her eyes. "Maybe tonight is the night."

"Look Caroline, I don't want to leave Hope any more than you want me going off on my own. But if you can't get through with Marcel we might not have a choice."

With a grim frown, Hayley turned on her heels and walked down the hall to her bedroom leaving Caroline overwhelmed with the pressure of what to do. Knowing there was little she could do at this moment, Caroline silently padded into the bedroom, brushing hair off tiny foreheads and readjusting blankets with a loving smile.

As she reached over to turn off the lamp Hope's tiny sleep filled voice startled her.

"Caroline?"

"Hey sweetie, sorry I woke you." She whispered softly as she sat gingerly on her bed.

"S'ok" Hope replied as she shifted onto her side, folding her little hands underneath her cheek, "Have you found my Daddy yet?"

"No sweetie. Not yet." Caroline answered tenderly as she brushed a fallen curl off Hope's forehead. She watched the crestfallen look pass over her face with a gaze in her eyes that showed how much the poor girl had been through for such a young age. "But I am getting closer, I can feel it." She offered as she leaned in closely, wanting to give her a sense of hope.

"You will. I can feel it too." Hope said with a nod of determination.

Sharing a conspiring grin with her Caroline straightened back up with a no nonsense tone, "Alright you, time to go back to sleep okay?"

"Caroline?" Hope's voice stopped her once again from rising from the bed.

"Yeah?"

"Will you tell me the story of when my Dad took you to the Miss Mystic pageant again? Please. I promise to go to sleep right after."

Her big puppy like eyes, eyes that reminded Caroline so much of the young girl's Father, drew her in like a moth to a flame. Damn. She could never resist that look from her or her Father.

By the end of her tale Hope was struggling to keep her eyes opened and fell fast asleep to the words of her long-lost Father and his tale of the hummingbird.

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Caroline made it back to her apartment without any issues, though she did stop off at a few local shops so she would have a reasonable excuse for being away from home for so long in case any of the daywalkers reported her prolonged absence.

Locking the door behind her she meandered slowly to her bedroom and placed her bags on her bed. She hung the dress bag on the hook behind her door unzipping it to reveal a long tightly cut dress with a high slit up its side. The blue color of the cloth reminded her of another dress she owned, though this one's style was far from the demure princess cut of the gift from a certain hybrid. But this dress would serve a similar purpose as the other; capturing the attention of the resident bad-guy.

As she readied for yet another night of undercover her thoughts trailed back to when she, Alaric and the girls had just begun their Operation Missing Hybrid or OMH as the girls liked to call it, back in their hotel suite.

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 _Alaric had spent the past few weeks dressed as a tourist with maps in hand, claiming to be studying the local supernatural lore. Caroline had tried to dissuade him from going, using the reasoning that he was human so she should be the one to go. He had remined her that they don't know how much this Marcel guy knew of her and with her showing up not that long ago with the girls in search of Klaus, word might have gotten around to him._

 _So, it was settled and even if Caroline hated to admit it Alaric was right, while word of her showing up looking for Klaus hadn't spread, with his peeked interest paired his weird flirty demeanor that Caroline failed to find the appeal in, had landing him with the most crucial piece of information they needed from a witch who had taken a liking to him. The Mikaelson's had founded this area well over a century ago, and while they had returned at one point, no one had heard from them in years. The entire family had just vanished one night, leaving Marcel and his followers to revel in their disappearance and gain control back of the city._

 _Trying to find any lead she could Caroline had taken a chance and called Tyler. Which turned out to be the biggest break they found. Tyler had explained that Hayley and Hope had just passed through three months prior. And even though he wasn't sure where they were headed, she had left a phone number._

 _Being the resourceful person she is, Caroline explained to Tyler that she didn't think Hayley would be too respective to her calling. So, in a very much teen-drama like move, Tyler called Hayley with Caroline quietly listening in on conversation, as he told her someone he trusts and she should as well, was willing to help. When the dreaded question of why she should trust Tyler or any of his friends came, Tyler ever the diplomat, explained it simply, "I know what it's like to lose my family. No matter how I feel about Klaus, your daughter shouldn't have to grow up without family. Besides I'm just your average werewolf now. I'm moving on. I'm living a peaceful life."_

 _It wasn't long after that phone call that a very reluctant and on edge Hayley had shown up at their hotel suite. Hayley turning up showed Caroline just how in need and desperate the woman really was to get her family back. It wasn't an easy transition, and their growing numbers is what prompted Caroline into looking for a place to house them all safely, but it worked. And with that, that was how Hayley and Hope, along with the Mikaelson siblings even though they didn't know it yet, had fallen within the folds of Caroline's little family._

 _With Hayley on their team now, they were able to know and understand more about what had happened and the man Marcel himself. He didn't allow the werewolves into the inner city, he kept a close eye on all the witches and didn't allow vampires older then him to stay in the city for long._

 _Hayley turned out to be quite resourceful and had a vampire, right around Marcel's age, locked away from before she had taken off with a baby and coffins in toe. Which had caused Caroline to clap her hands in excitement. This nearly desiccated vampire would fit perfectly into the plan she had devised that would help her slip into Marcel's inner circle._

 _Knowing that a baby vampire, especially when compared to Marcel, wouldn't stand much of a chance if things went wrong, Caroline had planned for the girls to siphon and transfer the older vampire's durability to herself._

" _I still don't see how having the strength of an almost two centuries old vampire will help you." Hayley had scoffed one night. "It doesn't matter what your plan in, Marcel will have people looking into your background and if he catches you in a lie you'll be dead before you can even start to fight back."_

" _Ah well then you will be happy to know that I have an iron tight alibi." Caroline had responded with a proud smirk as she pulled out an old family photo album._

" _You have an alibi for centuries before you were even born?" Hayley scoffed skeptically._

" _Yup. Here." She replied with a smile as she handed over the album. "I will be living one of my many childhood dreams and channeling the great Scarlett O'Hara."_

" _Looks like all those acting lessons from college will be paid off." Alaric chuckled causing Caroline to roll her eyes before drawing the groups attention back to the old family album._

 _Inside the photo album held a short recounting of one of Caroline's many times over great cousins; Carolina Williams. In the surrounding area, she was notoriously known back in the early 1800's for helping abused and mistreated slaves escape their so-called masters. She had successfully helped many escape their presumed fates until one night a group of disgruntled slave owners caught up with her, setting one of her safe house on fire, killing her in the process._

 _The fact that she was never found nor heard from again combined with the uncanny likeness to Caroline, made her the perfect alibi and cover story to sell to Marcel. Her last words to Hayley before leaving that night were, "When telling a lie, you have to keep it as close to the truth as possible. All the best and greatest lies are formed and based on the truth."_

 _It had been that very night that she was first introduced to Marcel. Her natural charm, wit and air of sophistication paired with her beauty had drew him in within moments of her walking into the bar. She slowly fed him her story over drinks. She had held him enthralled as she weaved her tale and his gasp of surprise paired with the twinkle in his eyes when he exclaimed that he remembered hearing tale of her bravery when he was a boy tending the fields, had helped to sell it more than she could have hoped for._

 _Caroline had played her part to the letter. Telling him of her love of all people, of her horror the first time she had seen a slave whipped simply for dropping a bale of hay. How her becoming a conductor for the Underground Railroad had started with her helping a young boy around her age at the time, maybe ten or so, escape from the goat shack he had been hiding in so that he could find his way back to his Uncle. At that moment, she had pressed her hands together as if in prayer, speaking in hushed tones of her hopes that they had found each other as well as safety._

 _During her tale and Marcel's ever growing admiration of her, Caroline couldn't help but feel pride. These things she spun to him were not based solely on lies, as she was sure Hayley would discover back home as she read through her late-cousin's journals. Carolina, her namesake, was a remarkable woman who lived her life in the belief that their Southern ways of living were wrong and injustice. She fought for the days where all men and women were treated as equals and had helped as many as she could before she too was taken far too soon at the hands of the oppressors._

 _This was where Caroline changed history a bit as she explained that she had woken up alone with a hunger she didn't understand until one of the former slaves came to her aid. The woman had been a freshly turned vampire. Her self-proclaimed master had dabbled into the dark arts and had vampire blood on hand that he would give them after a particularly harsh beating. The woman had been secretly giving her blood during her stay, wanting to keep her safe. Claiming that she seen the goodness within her with every time she would give her own food rations to the small children leaving little to none for herself._

 _When Caroline had stopped speaking and began to quietly sip on her drink, Marcel had begged to hear more of her life and what she had been doing lately. She demurely lowered her head, her hands that had been clasped upon her lap raised to cover her chest, "Why I do believe a man should leave a bit of mystery to a woman, do you not agree?"_

 _With a quick flutter of her long eyelashes and a shy smile she knew she had him hooked._

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Caroline was pulled from her reverie as her phone chimed signaling an incoming text message. She set down the curling iron allowing the last curl the artfully fall across her shoulder as she read the message form Marcel.

 _I do hope to see you this evening Caroline._

Caroline looked at herself in the full-length mirror, taking in her provocative style she had chosen for the night. A look of pure determination, with just a hint of worry, flashed through her steely blue eyes. Tonight had to be the night. She had come up with a possible plan to get Marcel to show her where Klaus was being kept. She couldn't sit back and watch that poor little girl who couldn't even remember the sound of her Father's voice be so heartbroken any longer.

She was going to do this or fight like hell trying.

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Caroline stood on the terrace of Abattoir overlooking the party goers below when Marcel found her.

"Mon Chéri! What a gorgeous sight you make in that stunning dress." He approached her with a wide smile.

Caroline took a deep breath to ready herself for her next performance, offering a halfhearted pirouette to show off her ensemble, she grasped his hands once she faced him again giving him what she hoped was a downcast smile after they kissed each other's cheeks.

Marcel studied her long face as he kept ahold of her hand between both of his own, "While this color of blue suits you perfectly, I don't think it belongs on a face as lovely as yours. What has you so upset Sweetheart?"

Caroline did her best not to flinch at the harsh way the endearment fell from his lips when compared to its husky and smooth counterpart. Instead she sighed as she carefully extracted her hand from his and went back to gazing at the party below, "Sorry Marcel. I guess in light of… well, certain happenings, I'm not much of the party mood. Perhaps I should just head back home."

"Nonsense. Tell me what's going on and let me help you." Marcel interjected earnestly.

"You can't help me I'm afraid. Even your King's status couldn't get me out of this mess." She sighed with a melancholy air.

"When will you let go of this shroud of mystery and tell me what brought you to my city?" He reprimanded her gently, "I'm sure if you told me what troubles you, you would be surprise to find there isn't much I can't do for you."

Caroline turned to face him, she studied his face in what she was sure he assumed to be contemplation of whether she could trust him or not. With a resigned sigh, she nodded her head minutely, "Fine. But not here. You never know just where his spies could be lurking."

"Man trouble. I should have guessed it." He grinned at her huff as they began to walk, "Now don't get upset, I don't mean to cast a negative light on your character, only that one as stunning as you is bound to run into trouble with a man or two."

"Yes, well this is one man," She said scathingly as they walked down the hall to his private study, "that I wish had never darkened my doorstep let alone the little town I attempted to call home."

Marcel placed a hand on her back as he led her into the study and closed the door firmly behind them after she entered. "Sounds like a drink is needed for this story."

Caroline gave him a pinched smile and a nod of her head. Internally she rolled her eyes wondering why on Earth men were so easy. Show a little skin, leave a little mystery to be uncovered, act strong but show weakness so they feel they can save you. She had to choke back a scoff, turning it into a grateful grin when he offered her a drink with an encouraging smile.

"Would you like to sit?" He asked as he waved his hand towards the sofa.

"Thank you, but I think I'd prefer to stand." Her hands shook slightly both from her act and from her genuine fear that this story might just blow her cover and all that was riding on this.

"A few years ago, I was able to track down a distant relative of mine. After so many years without true family I'm sure you realize what a joy this was for me." She began softly as Marcel sat on the sofa poised in front of the fireplace, giving her a nod to continue, "Well that joy did not last for long. The woman I found; her daughter was killed in a car crash at the very young age of sixteen just a few days after my arrival. But in the face of this tragedy I found something that I never thought to have. A home. Maybe I was wrong for doing what I did, but I compelled the people working at the hospital, as well as the girl's Mother, to believe she had survived and I took her place instead. Our likeness was uncanny and I just couldn't pass up the chance."

Caroline took a sip of her drink and a deep breath to steady her nerves before continuing, "Of course I should have paid closer attention to the area. It turned out to be a proverbial hot bed for supernatural activity, but headstrong as ever, I assumed I could survive it. I won't bore you with the in-betweens, but one thing lead to another and I was caught in a web not of my own making. My vampirism came out into the open and eventually it was accepted. Though none knew my true age since they all assumed that I was my relative."

Caroline stopped in front of the fireplace and set her empty glass on the mantle. With her back turned towards Marcel, her ears picking up on his shifting on the sofa as he asked, "What happened next? I have the feeling this is where the life you built took a drastic turn for the worst."

Caroline gave him a sad smile over her shoulder, "You assume correctly Marcel. For that was when _he_ came to town." She began to frantically pace back and forth waving her arms wildly as she continued, "He came in and ripped the town apart with his teeth and claws. He killed, he tortured, he used and abused nearly every friend I had made. And then…" She swallowed as she allowed tears to gather in her eyes, "Then he set his sights on me."

"He…he wanted me all because I posed a challenge for him. And while I am ashamed to admit it, I used that to my advantage and led him on to keep my friends and I safe. But then things got ugly when I turned him down flat and I have been running ever since. In fact, it's why I came here. I heard that those chasing me to my eminent death could not pass into your city."

She saw the moment of realization and dread that passed over his face only seconds before he asked, "Who is chasing you? Who sent them?"

Caroline floundered her mouth open and closed, letting a few tears track down her face as she shook her head frantically, "No. No I mustn't. I cannot allow you to be caught up in this anymore than you already are. You have no idea who this monster is! Of what he can and will do to you if he finds out I have your aid."

Marcel then stood from the sofa, taking her into his arms, feeling her shiver and began rubbing her back and shoulders as if to warm her, "Hey. Hey. It's okay. You're safe here."

Caroline shivered involuntarily at his choice of words which played out in her favor even though she didn't shiver in fear but shock.

Marcel pulled back, gripping her shoulders and kneeling down slightly to be eye level with her, "Tell me Caroline. It's okay. Trust me."

With the weight of everything on her shoulders, her trembling lip wasn't as fake as she had planned as she whispered, "Werewolves. A group of werewolves has been compelled to chase me to my death or straight into the arms of the one who sent them after me, the only one who possesses the cure for such a bite."

A hard yet triumphant glint lit his eyes as he announced, "Klaus Mikaelson."

Caroline used every acting tool under her belt as she widened her eyes just enough to show shock as she gasped, "You know of him?"

"Quite well in fact. He took me in as a boy and later he turned me."

Caroline flashed to the other side of the room in attempts to show her fear, "No. Oh my god! I've walked right back into his trap!"

"No! No! Caroline I promise you, you haven't! Listen to me." Marcel slowly walked towards her but stopped at her flinch, lifting his hands to show her he meant her no harm, "He betrayed me time and time again. But this last time, I finally defeated him myself."

"What?" She let her body relax slightly, giving him the encouragement to move ahead a little more.

"I have him locked away where he can never hurt you again or anyone else again." The pride he obviously felt at this radiated off him in waves.

"You speak truly?" She eyed him skeptically as he stopped in front of her.

"I swear it." He placed a hand over his chest, offering her a tender smile, "I can show you if it would help you to sleep easier."

"I'd sleep much better if I had the cure so I could go see my ailing friend." She grumbled in vexation.

Marcel tilted his head to the side as he asked, "Your ailing friend?"

"Yes, did I not mention that?" At the negative shake of his head she placed a hand on his arm, "Sorry, I suppose I just got caught up with the memories of my tale." She swallowed harshly, tilting her head off to the side in an act that gained his sympathy instantly, "A dear old friend of mine is sick and dying. I wish to see her before she passes but with the werewolves out there I fear I will be bitten and die myself before reaching her."

"I'll send some of my men with you to act as your guard. They will keep you safe I swear it. Not that they need my influence; you have won them over just as you have me." He smiled widely, his pure pleasure at the fact that she had gained the approval of his closest men shone clearly from his eyes.

Caroline lowered her head with a bashful laugh, licking her lower lip as she glazed at him from underneath her lashes. Marcel brushed a hand down the side of her face reverently when all of a sudden she took hold of his hand in hers exclaiming excitedly, "Oh Marcel! I have a wonderful idea! You wish to show him how much you've bested him yes?" He gave her a hesitant nod, though his intrigue colored his eyes, "Well think of this! You take me to see him, not only so I can get his blood just in case a wolf sneaks past your generous guards, but so he will see me there. With you!"

Caroline knew she was pressing her luck, but she just had to get close to Klaus, and this was the only way. She bit her lower lip to hold back her triumphant grin when she could see she was winning Marcel over, "Think of it Marcel. You not only gained you city back and bested the beast; he will believe you have won the one thing he was craving for years now. Me."

"And have I?" Marcel asked huskily as he lowered his chin.

Caroline furrowed her brows, "Have you what?"

He wrapped an arm around her back, pulling her into his body slowly as he starred into her eyes, "Have I won you fair Caroline?"

Caroline had to swallow down the curl of her lips and the threat of bile in her throat as she walked her fingers up his chest to cup the side of his neck and whispered seductively, "Hmm, I'm not quite sure as of yet but you could be on the right track Monsieur."

Marcel bent down, his intentions to kiss her clear, but at the last second Caroline turned her head so his lips landed on her cheek. When he pulled back in question she grinned flirtatiously, "An air of mystery, remember?"

"And I'd have you no other way." Marcel said softly before pulling away completely and holding out a hand for her to take. "Come. We need to grab a full and an empty blood bag before we see the beast's lair."

"A full and an empty?" Caroline asked in honest confusion.

"Well he is going to need a little blood if you are going to be taking some for yourself." Marcel laughed as he led her towards the kitchen, "Can't very well take blood from a desiccated corpse, now can you?"

This time Caroline couldn't hold back the shiver of dread or her gag of disgust at the image that his words painted in her mind.

Thankfully Marcel took her reaction much differently, "Don't worry Mon Chéri, he will not be able to hurt you even with the blood we will feed him. Hell, he won't even be able to move more than his angry beady eyes." He continued guiding them down the hall, speaking almost to himself, "Though this does give me an idea. I could gather and stock pile his blood and have the masses flock to me for the only cure to a werewolf bit. Genius. Pure genius."

Caroline had to bite her tongue at the scathing retort that threatened to burst from her lips. The sooner this was done the better. While she wasn't much for killing people, she couldn't wait to see Marcel dead and bloody on the floor.

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Caroline pulled her wrap closer against her trembling form as Marcel nodded at the guards to allow them to pass into the underground cavern deep beneath the Abattoir. One of the nightwalkers rushed ahead of them to remove a few large stones from what seemed to be a support column in the center of the dark and dank room. Her eyes covertly scanned the layout of the room as well as mentally calculating how many guards seemed to be at hand.

Her hand flew to her throat with a gasp as the gray face and shoulders of Klaus came into view. Her eyes raced over what she could see of him taking in his dark veins, his gray skin and his once raspberry lips that were now ashy and chapped. She felt a flare of anger course through her body at the sight of the metal collar wrapped tightly around his neck keeping him in place along with whatever else they had done to him that she couldn't see.

Marcel walked up behind her, wrapping an arm firmly around her waist as the nightwalker placed the blood bag to Klaus's lips, whispering reassuringly into her ear, "Like I said; he is nothing to be afraid of now. Nothing but a fallen bastard. In fact, I will allow you to be the one to gather the blood you need from him so you can give him a piece of your mind."

Caroline hissed past the snarl that threatened to leave her lips, "Thank you. That's very generous of you."

"I do hope my generosity is remembered later." He said cautiously causing her to turn away from Klaus whose eyes were just beginning to crack open.

"Why is that?"

"Because of this." Marcel muttered right before spinning her into his arms, dipping her low in a show that was no doubt meant for Klaus, as he smashed his lips to hers.

She wanted nothing more than to shove him away, to snap his stupid neck so hard that she would tear his head clean off. She knew exactly what he was doing. It was exactly what Tyler would do every single time Klaus was around them. It was a show of who the supposed alpha male truly was.

But no matter how she felt, no matter how much her skin crawled at his touch, she had a role to play here. So against what her heart was screaming, she let herself seem as though she was falling into the kiss, gripping the back of his head with a little too much force.

Thankfully Marcel's need to boast was more important to him in this moment than kissing her was and it was over quickly.

Caroline straightened her body as well as her dress, Marcel's voice drowning out into the background when she stared into Klaus's livid and disgusted eyes. She made a show of slowly lifting her left wrist to brush her hair out of her face, drawing his eyes directly to where she wanted them to go.

The diamond bracelet wrapped securely around her delicate wrist shifted against her skin, the soft fire light from the scones on the walls making it twinkle and reflect in his eyes. His eyes that now looked at her with a hint of curiosity and a dash of fear at her presence.

Silently she took the empty blood bag from the nightwalker before stepping up onto the stones he had placed on the floor, putting her eyes level with Klaus as Marcel still droned on with glee.

Caroline licked her lips, knowing the others in the room expected her to say some scathing remark, but she suddenly found herself speechless when faced with Klaus's confusion and rage and the fact that after all this time she had finally found him.

Squaring her shoulders, she allowed her voice to drop into her standard Klaus-scoffing tone, yet her eyes gazed softly into his, hoping he would catch onto her act.

"Oh, how the mighty alpha male has fallen. I had so much _Hope_ that this would happen someday, _however long it would take_. It's seems it all works out for the best in the end." She shrugged her shoulder as she readied the blood bag against a vein in his neck, relief rushing through her as a wide range of emotions flickered through his eyes before landing on what she assumed to be comprehension. "What with the _terrible people_ being taken care of, the rest of us can have the life _we have hope-_ d for. We can _live_ and be _safe_ and _happy_ as a _family_."

The blood bag was filling up faster than she was ready for, her instincts screaming to free him now. She must have twitched, sending Klaus a signal that she was ready for a fight when he gave her a slight shake of his head before what little strength he had gained from the blood waned and his eyes fell closed once more.

Caroline wanted to scream, she wanted to cry and tell him to fight like the damn Original Terror he was, but she knew she had to keep up appearances. She couldn't risk giving the game away now when they were so close to winning. She had a mission to complete and a role to continue playing. She capped the blood bag off, sending a wish to anyone out there listening that he understood her message. That he had followed along with her speech and the words she stressed. That she was going to save him, that Hope and his family were safe, that anything he seen with Marcel was nothing but an act.

Turning on her heels she took the offered hand of Marcel with a pouting huff, "He didn't even stay awake long enough for me to finish ranting at him! How rude!"

Marcel laughed deeply, "We can't have him getting too strong on us, now can we?"

Caroline glanced back at Klaus as the nightwalkers began replacing the stone allowing a devilish grin to grow on her face, "No we mustn't. But it was awfully refreshing to see him. Like this I mean."

"His reign of terror is over I promise you. Now, why don't we get you out of here, this is no place for a Lady such as you. I will gather my finest and strongest men to escort you over the border and to your friend as quickly as possible."

Caroline's happy smile and next words needed no help at all from her acting abilities, "You have been such a wonderful help Marcel. I'm not sure what I would have done without you or how I can ever repay you."

His bashful chuckle and timid look in his eyes would have been sweet if Caroline didn't know who he really was and wasn't currently picturing him broken on the dirty floor. "Well I can think of one thing."

"Marcel!" She gasped in offence, "I know we are well along in our years and the times have changed but I will tell you truly I am not that kind of girl!"

"What? No! I only meant that maybe you would consider allowing me to take you out on a proper date once you return." He took hold of Caroline's hand when she huffed in ire, bowing over it slightly, "I honestly meant no offence or was I trying to imply anything unsavory. Just a chance for the two of us to go out on the town, for you to give me the chance to show you I am not like other men and could make you a very happy woman."

"Well," Caroline pretended to think it over as she fluttered her eyelashes at him, "I supposed, once I return, it's a date then."

As she walked away from him, she took a chance and looked back over her shoulder to see him rocking on his feet with his hands in his pocket and a pleased smile upon his face. Grinning back at him with a wave she turned her head away as the devious smirk grew on her face at the fact that her plans had worked. They would have their date but it certainly wouldn't be any type of date he had in mind.

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The plan of attack was set and the timing had to be perfect. Hayley had secretly gathered a werewolf clan for the ambush against the daywalkers as well as gained their aid in helping to smuggle Bonnie to the border undetected. Under the worried glanced of all the adults, Josie and Lizzie linked themselves to Bonnie so that when the moment came Bonnie could free Klaus while also locking Marcel away in the stone tomb until they could figure out how to kill or permanently disable the unkillable super-vamp he had turned into.

All three of the young girls had protested adamantly about not being there when Klaus was freed, but under the firm commands of their parents, they had agreed that saving Klaus came first and it would be best if they stayed behind with Alaric.

Things had worked out surprisingly well and faster than any of them had expected after the guards came to escort Caroline. Marcel's men were either weak or too cocky to think anyone could over power them. Leaving the werewolves to deal with the daywalkers, Caroline had flashed to the Abattoir, meeting Bonnie and Hayley outside.

Between the three of them they had quickly dispatched the guards and were tearing down the stone wall away from Klaus's body when Marcel rushed into the room.

Bonnie worked quickly, not giving him time to utter a single word before she began her spell as Hayley and Caroline worked together to pull Klaus's body out of the wall. Marcel's body dropped to the floor, his skin graying and desiccating right before their eyes just as the color was beginning to return to Klaus's.

Hayley and Caroline heaved Marcel's prone form into the small space he had been keeping Klaus, locking him in and stepping back as Bonnie performed an enchantment to hold him inside until they could revive the Mikaelson's and figure out just what to do with him.

Once it was complete, Hayley and Bonnie left for Caroline's home to help the girls ready for the spell to wake the Mikaelson's, leaving Caroline to flash Klaus's weakened body to her car which she had waiting just around the corner. Thankfully she had had the foresight to have not only a change of clothing ready for him but a cooler of blood bags sitting in the back seat. As he sucked down bag after bag of blood she began telling him what she knew of all that had transpired after he had been taken down and how they had come to free him as she drove them to her apartment.

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The shower had cut off a while ago leaving Caroline feeling strangely nervous as she sat on the edge of her bed twisting her fingers together. There was no way it should be taking him this long to shower and change and it left a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. Hayley had filled her in for the most part of all that Klaus had gone through before allowing himself to be overtaken by Marcel in a noble attempt to protect his family. To him, all of these things would feel like yesterday while to the rest of them time had continued to pass on. Add on top of that that she had the beautiful memories of their time spent with the girls that all started that fateful day in the woods while he didn't. Caroline couldn't help but wonder if he still would want her to keep her promise.

He had wanted her to wait until she was ready to give them a real chance before restoring those memories to him and the truth was that she had weighed the options constantly over these past few months. When she wasn't working her way into Marcel's circle or spending time with the girls it was all she thought about. And she had come to a decision easier than she had expected.

She was ready. She wanted to try and blend their families together. She wanted more days and nights with Klaus and their daughters like the ones spent in that hotel room. She wanted him.

The only problem was he didn't have those memories yet and by with the look on his face when he finally emerged from the bathroom, she had the sinking feeling things weren't going to go as she had hoped.

Caroline stood quickly from the bed, covertly wiping her sweaty palms over the thighs of her jeans. "So I was thinking that…" She began but reeled back when Klaus abruptly cut her off.

"I think it would be best if you took me to my family now."

"Huh?"

"My siblings, my daughter." He spoke harshly, "From what you've told me you know of their whereabouts. I would like to be taken to them."

"Okay. Yeah." She tried to gather herself despite his detached demeanor, "I was just hoping that maybe we could talk before…" She attempted not to snarl as he cut her off yet again.

"Before what Caroline?" His cold eyes looked at her before flicking away rather quickly, "While I thank you for your services in my rescue, I have other things that I need to be caught up on as I am sure you have responsibilities of your own to handle. So let's cut the small talk so we can both be on our own ways."

"What the hell is your problem?" Caroline snapped at him, "I come here for once to actually _save_ you and quite well I might add and this is the thanks I get? Now be on my way?!" She screeched, "God! You still can't get out of your own way, can you?!"

Klaus snarled as he stepped closer to her, "What don't you understand? I want to see my daughter and my family. I don't have time for your games."

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest with a scoff. "Games? You think I'm playing a game with you? Seriously Klaus tell me what the hell is going on with you? Do you still have dust clouding up your mind or what?"

"Why can't you see I'm doing this for your own good?" Klaus tossed his arms wide with an irritated groan, "For the good of your girls?"

"Oh please," She scoffed as she pointed her finger at him with narrowed eyes, "you're doing this for yourself. So much for the noble Klaus who allowed himself to be taken down to save his family. Guess you're only good for one noble act every what, decade?" She snarled mockingly at him.

"You're right Sweetheart." He sneered, "And now that my quota is met and the matters are settled you can skip along with your merry little life."

"So much for your promises huh?" Caroline tossed at him hurtfully.

Knowing the promises she spoke of brought back the words he had told her so long ago on the night of her graduation, it pained him to say what he was about to say next her of all the people in his life, "You will come to learn, as I long since have, that some of the most heartfelt promises are meant to be broken even when you had no intentions of doing such a thing."

Seeing the flash of pain in his eyes gave her the push she needed, "Well there are somethings here that you don't know and I think if you did you would…" She tried to plead with him in a gentler tone, but it seemed he would never let her finish a sentence today.

"I will not be changing my mind Caroline." He body stood ridged as he interrupted her.

"Still," She tried to persuade him to listen as she placed a hand on his arm, "I think you would be singing a different tune if you knew what I want to tell you."

Klaus harshly knocked her hand off his arm, anger and rage poured off him as he shouted, "Why must you always press things that aren't not your concern. Things that I do not wish to say?!"

"Have you met me?" She said in a deadpan voice in the face of his anger with a wave of her hand at herself.

"What don't you get!" He yelled as he began pacing the floor before her, his hands carding through his still damp hair, "People I come to care for die Caroline! You and your family will die, not by my hands directly, but it will fall on my shoulders none the less. I can't have that. I won't survive it. Please love." He pleaded with her as he gripped her shoulders giving her body a firm shake, "Don't force me to live with the oppressing knowledge that I am responsible for the death of your light."

Seeing his pain and his genuine and real fear, seeing him in a way she never had before Caroline uttered brokenly, "Okay." Klaus seemed to look equal parts relieved and heartbroken as he nodded his head and dropped his hands from her shoulders. Caroline went to her dresser, scribbling something down quickly and turning to hand it to him, "Here's the address where we've all been staying. I'll try to make sure Alaric, the girls and I are gone before you come for everyone. Your family should be awake by now." She tried to ignore the crack in her own voice as she fought to reign in her heartbroken emotions.

"They've all been with you?" Klaus spoke in surprise, his mind telling him that she had told him this on the ride over but things were still a little hazy for him. Watching her try to control her emotions, he instantly felt an overwhelming sorrow that he had hurt her so, even if he thought at the moment it was for the best.

"Yeah we've formed quite the team." She managed to say past the lump in her throat knowing that she needed to get away from him before she broke. Her shaking sweaty palm cupped the side of his jaw as her petal soft lips brush against the stubble on his cheek. Neither knew that they both clench their eyes closed at the touch, a single tear leaking from their eyes as she choked out painfully, "Goodbye Klaus."

And then she's gone.

She was gone before he could even kiss her soft skin in return as he yearned to do.

As his hand fell limply to his side, still warm from the touch of her skin, he drew in a deep breath thinking it was for the best. If he allowed his lips to touch her skin for even a moment, he would never let her go. As he had told Stefan all those years ago, what still felt like yesterday to him, he had to let her go. How was it fair of him to keep her, to be a part of her life, when he wasn't even sure he could keep her safe?

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The reunion he walked into when he entered the address Caroline had given him was more than he could have ever dreamed. Seeing his siblings alive and well, being able to clutch his daughter tightly in his arms after so long was overwhelming to say the least. The many faces in the room brought him joy and filled him with a sense of purpose for what he had sacrificed to see them alive and well. Though there was one face he longed to see more than anything, but she was nowhere in sight.

He had taken his time before arriving here, stopping to feed on something living to replace the plastic aftertaste of the blood bags. It wasn't until almost two hours and five victims later that he cursed himself for the cowardly fool he was.

With Hope being occupied by Rebekah and Elijah, Klaus left the sitting room in search of the one face he wanted to see no matter how much it would pain him. He knew he was being ridiculous, that his fears were making him act as impulsive as ever. He could only hope that after all he had learned that she had done for him and his family and with the way he had treated her after she had so bravely saved him that she would give him the chance to take back what he had said. Caroline was loyal to a fault and by some stroke of luck she had aimed her valiant loyalty at him. And he had carelessly thrown it away, he winced at the thought.

Klaus wandered through the home she had built, finding a surprising sight of his sister Freya sitting at the dining room table in a deep discussion with Alaric. The scathing look the man threw his way was not lost on Klaus in the slightest.

Alaric stood from the table, giving his excuse to Freya and waving Klaus towards the back hallway leading him to the staircase. Once they were out of range of the others Alaric stopped him abruptly, his anger clear in his voice.

"I don't know what you said to her but you would think after everything she did to save you and your family, putting her own at risk in the process you would be a little more grateful to her. All this time I actually thought you cared about her. I thought that she was right when she told me as much and we agreed to build a life here with the girls. Here where you are."

Klaus felt oddly reluctant to meet the man's gaze but he managed when Alaric sighed.

"Look, I'm sure you have your reasons for whatever it is you said to her but you should make damn sure that whatever that was, is what you really want." With that Alaric shoved his hands into his pockets and nodded his head towards the stairs, "She's in her room."

Klaus quietly walked up the stairs towards the bedroom he could clearly tell was Caroline's by her huffs of aggravation. He paused and leaned against the wall of the hallway, letting his head fall back as he sighed wondering what it was he was doing. What he would say to her. How he could possible make her understand that he only spoke out of fear of losing her for good.

"Klaus?"

His head lifted from the wall to see two little girls cuddled up in a bed together looking at him from their room. Curious as to how they knew it was him, he padded into Caroline's daughters' room, "I hear I owe you a debt of gratitude for what you were able to do for my siblings and myself." He grinned at their cheeks flushing in embarrassment before he reprimanded them softly, "I also hear you were both to be resting after the spells you so wonderfully performed."

"We are, but we wanted to wait for you." The little blonde haired girl spoke with an adorable smile.

"Me? Why?" Klaus asked curiously.

The girls shared a conspiring glance before the little brown haired girl spoke up and waved her hand for him to come closer, "Come here."

Bemused, Klaus walked over and sat on the side of their bed, "Well you have me here, mind telling me what has you both looking so suspicious?"

The girls' giggles warmed him in a way only Hope had ever achieved as they both sat up and each placed a hand on his face.

He only had a second of wondering what they were up to before images began dancing through his head. He barely heard one of them say, "For that." As his mind raced over all the newly acquired memories of his time with the girls and Caroline.

Caroline.

The thought of her and all that he had said to her, both today and back at the hotel on the balcony, washed over him like a cold bucket of water causing him to spring from the bed with a hasty goodnight to the twins.

He found Caroline in her bedroom, hastily packing a bag with a pinched look about her face as if she was holding back tears or trying to keep herself from shouting when he rushed in. He couldn't tell for sure but either option he decided quickly did not bode well for him.

Klaus shuffled forward whispering gently as he placed a hand to her arm, "Caroline stop."

Knocking his hand off her she snarled, "No, a promise is a promise, right? We will be gone as soon as the girls wake up. I know I said it would be sooner than that but they need their rest after those spells. But don't worry," She shrugged as she continued packing her things in an attempt to cover her riotous emotions, "we will be gone and you will be free. Hell, I won't ever have to come back here with the way the housing market is. I am sure the agent for the community will be able to sell my house without a problem."

Klaus's head shot up, his eyes widening, "You purchased this place?" His mind running a mile a minute over the ramifications of what that could mean.

Caroline scoffed in response, "I don't see how that matters anymore."

"Oh, it matters a great deal Love." He said with a dimpled smile.

Caroline groaned as she threw her arms out, "What the hell does that mean? You made me promise I would leave, no matter what. Now here I am doing just that and you're being all cryptic!"

"If you recall I also said some promises were made to be broken."

She narrowed her eyes at him clearly not amused, "You know your moods are really starting to give me whiplash."

He smirked cheekily back at her, "The feeling has always been mutual trust me."

She raised her arms halfway before dropping them against her thighs as she asked him tiredly, "What do you want from me Klaus?"

"What I want is for you to stop packing." He took a step closer to her, smiling softly at her huff as he took the sweater from her hands and gently draped it over a chair before he turned her towards him, "I want for you to look at me."

Caroline huffed and rolled her eyes but looked up at him defiant as ever bringing a light chuckle from him, "I want," He began with a heavy sigh, "I want the picture that was painted and emblazoned within my mind right before your girls left us that day."

"What picture was that?" She snipped harshly at him before her breath caught in her throat and her eyes searched his hopefully, "Wait, what do you mean when the girls left us?"

"I had a little visit with Josie and Lizzie before coming in here." He replied softly.

"What? Those two! They were supposed to be resting." She shouted and moved to leave the room.

Klaus snickered as he stopped her, "Not the point at the moment Caroline."

Caroline grinned sheepishly at him, "Right sorry. So you, um remember then?"

"Yes."

"Everything?"

"Everything." He said firmly as he stared into her eyes making Caroline fidget.

"And, so…I mean how do you, what do you want now?" She asked biting her lower lip.

"I want what I realized I craved for that day we said goodbye to them." He told her tenderly as his eyes glimmered with emotion.

"Oh? And what's that?" She asked him with her teeth nibbling on her lower lip.

His dimples cut deeply into his cheeks with the force of his smile, "Our daughters bonding together…"

"They've done that already." Caroline smiled happily.

"Will you kindly let me finish?" Klaus reprimanded her lightly.

Caroline opened her mouth to say something causing him to look at her pointedly to which she huffed and waved her hand for him to proceed.

"Thank you." He nodded his head with a grin, "I want to watch as our daughters grow together. Through laughter and tears, the inevitable fights and skirmishes, with you and I battling and mining the fields of it all; together. Maybe with the slightest bit of help from our ever growing and extended family." He added in with a smirk.

"So what exactly are you saying?" She asked licking her lips with a hopeful breath.

"I'm saying that I've missed so much. So much of Hope's life, of Lizzie and Josie's," Klaus paused to take a deep breath, "of yours. I would like the chance to rectify that grievous crime."

"It's not a crime to miss out on things when you do it for the right reasons," She said sagely before adding cheekily, "even if you don't understand them."

"Oh I understand them," He stated and pretended to think it over, "I believe I have the perfect explanation for it all."

"Do you now?" Caroline laughed.

"Yes."

Caroline shook her head sending her blonde hair swirling around her as she laughed, "And that profound explanation is?"

Klaus squared his shoulders, "It's as simple as it is complexed. Love."

"Yes?" Caroline's forehead furrowed in confusion.

"No not Love the endearment," He chuckled, "but love the emotion."

He smiled tenderly at her gasp, "I love my daughter. I love my family, even the ones I did not being this life with. I fell in love with your daughters during our time together all those years ago and," He exhaled a shaky sigh before taking a leap, "I fell in love with you Caroline Forbes, Miss Mystic Falls, before I even knew how to name such an emotion accurately."

"What about Cami?" She asked hesitantly much to his surprise, "Hayley told me about her."

Klaus sighed deeply as his mind ran over the brave bartender whose life was cut far too short, "Cami was a good friend, a remarkable human. But she was nothing more than a passing fancy. I mourn her death as I do any wasted life and that of someone I could call a true friend. But much as you said of Elena, the same could be said of Camille; becoming a vampire changed her and not only that, those changes showed me that she would never be more than a friend, a name on a list of people to come in and out of my life that I will recall fondly."

Caroline seemed to take in all that he told her as he worked up the courage to finally ask, "What of Stefan?" He grew nervous at the far-off look that over took her face before she replied.

"I thought with him, if I tried really hard I could be who he needed me to be. That if I did that than maybe, just maybe, one day he would be what I needed him to be too. That he would wake up one day and see what a perfect catch he had right there waiting for him. Of course it didn't work out that way at all. There was always something happening that seemed to point out that Stefan and I would never be more than friends. And then the girls' time traveling thing happened which I still don't fully understand, like which reality was real? Did they stop us from," She trailed off at his heated look.

Klaus licked his lips, taking a step closer to her as his husky voice danced over her skin, "Oh that happened. No one will ever steal the taste of you from my tongue nor the feel of you from being buried beneath my skin, seeping into my very bones."

Stomping her foot to cover her blush she huffed, "Can I finish?" As a devilish smirk grew over his lips she waved a pointed finger at him, "Oh shut up!" Suddenly something seemed to click within her eyes, "So after my memories came back I realized something. Something big, something I never really understood until now."

Curious about how her mind worked as ever and having the feeling that he would have many times to tease her, he asked, "What's that Caroline?"

"Love shouldn't be so hard. It shouldn't be one person always trying so hard to be enough for someone else, waiting for someone to wake up and realize what they have. It should be as easy as breathing."

Both took a slow deep breath as they stared with glistening eyes at the other, their bodies moving closer toward each other of their own accord like magnets.

Klaus's eyes searched hers as he dared to ask, "What are you saying Caroline?"

"I think...I think I really want to give you, give _us_ , that chance." She rushed to continue, "I don't know what it means and I don't know where we are going or what will happen and believe me that is huge for me and its..." She trailed off as she searched for the right words to say.

"Bloody terrifying." Klaus interjected.

"Yeah." Caroline agreed, feeling a warmth spread through he that he understood what she was trying to say, "Terrifying…"

"Caroline?" Klaus encouraged her to continue after she drifted off.

Taking a deep breath to gather her strength she looked him square in the eyes, "I'm willing to give it a try if you are. I'm willing to learn and grow with you. I know we will have our differences, two strong headed people like us are bound to butt heads at some point."

Klaus scoffed with his head held high, "Please, speak for yourself Sweetheart. I am the most easy going person you have ever met."

"Wow!" Caroline burst into laughter, bringing a proud smile to Klaus's face, "He tells jokes!"

Klaus wrapped his arms around her, pulling her in close as he whispered, "So, are we truly giving this a chance Caroline?"

Caroline took in his hopefully yet anxious face, sighing silently in wonder at how much this man seemed to care for her, as if her answer had the potential to change his entire world, "Yeah. I guess we are."

Caroline decided, right before he pressed his lips against hers, that the smile he gave her was her new favorite look on him and that she couldn't wait to be the one to put it there again and again.

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Blending their families together was a challenge to say the least. The easiest and the most joyful part for them all was watching Lizzie, Josie and Hope form their own tiny coven under the guidance of Freya and Bonnie.

Bonnie had chosen to stay in New Orleans, becoming one of the most powerful and sought after witches in the area. She thrived under attention and station it gave her. Finally, Bonnie had a place where she was not only accepted for who she is and not what she could do but was also surrounded by others like her.

Hayley and Elijah slowly began rebuilding their relationship, much to Klaus's discomfort and Caroline's approval. Though Klaus didn't know it, Caroline had overheard his conversation with Hayley one night as they were dropping Hope off to sleep over with her Mother. It warmed her heart to see how far he had come and that he had taken her advice about being civil and learning to co-parent with Hayley. Things between the two of them went a lot smoother after that since both realized that Hope came first and whatever issues they had between each other didn't matter. Not if they wanted to give their daughter the childhood and life they never had.

Alaric and Elijah formed a close and intellectual friendship. They were often times found playing a rousing game of chess or discussing the merits of this or that author's points of view. It was always comical for Caroline to watch when they would get into their heated debates.

Strangely enough when Alaric wasn't chasing after Lizzie and Josie or with Elijah, he could be found in deep conversations with Freya, who seemed to always have a blush on her cheeks at his attention. Caroline had decided right away that she loved the budding relationship between the two and vowed to keep an eye on the Mikaelson men when it came out into the open.

Every Thursday evening all the ladies of the family would dress to the nines, kiss the foreheads of the girls before leaving the men in charge and hitting the town together. At first Rebekah and Hayley had scoffed at the idea while Bonnie, Caroline and Freya would argue the fun they could have together. The first few weeks were rocky to say the least but once everyone loosened up, namely Rebekah and Hayley, they discovered something they never had before. Friendship. Real friendship, the kind that lasts for lifetimes.

In the end, they were still looking for a way to put Marcel down for good, though Caroline had the feeling the delay had more to do with Klaus's old feelings towards Marcel than anything else. Though keeping Marcel weak enough to hold within his tomb did come at a price. A price that caused a heated argument between Klaus and Caroline but, in a surprising turn of events, Klaus had the backing of every single member of their makeshift family. Marcel's new strength needed to be siphoned out of him and placed within someone else since it was too dangerous for Josie and Lizzie to keep within themselves. And while Caroline didn't go down without a fight, in the end it was everyone using the fact that she would be better equipped to protect her girls won out. She was positive that once she finally agreed that a look of unadulterated relief passed over Klaus's face, knowing that she would be stronger had eased his mind quite a bit.

Plus, the added strength and abilities did make for quite a bit of fun in the bedroom.

It was after such an occurrence, with their breaths still racing as Caroline laid her head on Klaus's sweat covered chest that he spoke as his fingertips ran the length of her spine.

"I think it's time we take a trip, you and I."

Caroline propped her chin on his chest looking up at him through loving eyes, "Oh, is that right?"

Klaus grinned her favorite smile, one that made him look like an innocent boy yet still held the, my-hand-just-got-caught-in-the-cookie-jar look, "Mmm hmm. We have yet to explore the world together and I do recall promising to take you anywhere you wanted."

"Promised me huh?" Caroline said skeptically with a raised eyebrow, "More like said a line to get into my pants."

She giggled as Klaus pinched her side before he pulled her sedated body closer into his own, "And look where you are now Love. It may have taken me some time, but it seems to me my lines worked in both our favors."

Klaus lifted his eyebrow daring her to deny it, to which she just huffed a laugh with a shake of her head and a roll of her eyes, "Okay fine. You win. But I did put up one hell of a fight."

He chuckled in response as she laid her head back down on his chest, "One would almost say too much of a fight."

They laid in comfortable silence for a while, fingers slowly running over each other's skin, before Caroline quietly broke the silence, "So why now?"

Klaus shrugged his shoulders, "Can't a man want to take the woman he loves on a romantic getaway?"

Caroline sat halfway up so quickly Klaus had to move further into the pillows to avoid being hit, "What did you just say?"

Klaus looked at her bemused as he answered, "A romantic getaway. While I've never been on one myself, I have heard a time or two that it is the thing to do."

"Not about that. The…the other thing."

Klaus casually twirled a lock of her hair between her fingers, his eyes glued to the strains as he spoke, "You mean the bit about the woman I love?" He smirked at her gulp and breathy sigh of, yes, before his eyes gazed at her with so much emotions, "It can't come as that much of a surprise, now can it?"

"We haven't, I mean, you just haven't said it since I saved you almost a year ago." Caroline stuttered out in awe as a serious look came over his face as he sat up in front of her, pulling her up with him.

Caroline felt her heart pound within her chest as his hand brushed over her face, a gentle smile poised on his lips as his eyes stared straight into hers. His voice ringing with conviction as he declared, "I love you Caroline."

A strange cross between a giggle and a snort left her bringing a content smile to his face as he ran the backs of his fingers over her smiling face, "You don't have to respond, I will understand if you need more time…" His eyes widened comically as she smacked his bare chest.

"Don't be an idiot! Of course, I love you too!"

"You do?" He asked in disbelieving awe.

Caroline's face softened as she cupped his cheeks, "Yes. I love you Klaus."

Wrapping his arm around her lower back he pulled her kneeling body into his, crashing his lips to hers in a soul searing kiss. They pulled apart, both smiling widely at the other as Caroline asked, "Now about this trip."

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Thanks again for your support, feel free to leave me a mini report ;)


	26. Connecting Hearts

Hello everyone! A quick **IMPORTANT** update for you. I am making my drabble, **The Girl** , from chapter 16 into its very own separate story! You can find it NOW on my home page.

I also posted a very important Author's Note over on Above All Else, please check that out if you haven't yet. It contains answers to many of your questions as well as a summary about the upcoming, faster than you think, sequel, Above It All.

 **Trigger warnings: Physical Abuse towards Caroline. NOT by the hands of Klaus. Caroline also gets a little dark in this one but still remains herself.**

Setting: AU. Caroline is NOT from Mystic Falls, she is a human girl born in the late 1400's. Klaus stumbles upon her after a harsh beating from her Father and bonds with her. Time frame is a few years after Katerina escaped the ritual.

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"Papa! Papa stop!" The young boy screamed as he tried to wriggle out of his Mother's arms.

"Shh son. Hush yourself." She whispered harshly to her son, pulling him tightly against her own trembling form, "William," She uttered hesitantly, "Do you not think that is enough?"

"Enough? Enough!" He roared, pausing his hand holding the horse switch, shifting so he could kick a broken bow on the ground with his booted foot, "Was it enough when the stupid chit broken my prized bow?"

The anger and drunken rage churning in his eyes silenced his wife and son. The power from the effect of his single glare aimed at them filled him with glee as he turned back to his daughter whose body was draped stomach down against a fallen tree.

With his arm holding the switch raised high above his head he sneered with malicious intent, "It will be enough when I hear her scream."

The sounds of whimpering behind him was met with the repeated thwack as he continued to crack the switch over her bloody back.

But his daughter was stubborn, she would not give him the satisfaction of allowing a single sound to excape her pressed lips, no matter how horrible the pain was nor how much she bloodied her own lip. She knew he would tire eventually, he would stubble away in a drunken haze, leaving her mother to tend to her wounds.

William finally stopped, his arm dropping to his side as his chest heaved. "You will not be welcomed back into the house until you have crafted me another bow." He spat on the ground beside her trembling form, "Sleep in the mud, sleep in the grass for all I care but do not think for a moment to seek shelter under any of my roofs!"

He turned stomping a few feet away from the shaking group, waving his arm in front of him, "Come now you two, my supper has been ruined by this worthless chit and now it is time for slumber."

"But William, she needs…I should tend to her…" His wife stumbled over her speech as her young son clung to her dress skirts with tears pouring down his cherub cheeks at the sight of his older sister's bloodied back.

"You will do no such thing!" He scorned, "Mayhap if she wasn't such a stubborn girl I'd allow you to tend to her wounds. Now come."

She dutifully followed her husband back to their modest home, ushering her son along who wished nothing more than to fight back, the only thing stopping him was the thoughts of how much worse he would make the situation. The guilt ate at him with every step his feet took as he formulated a plan to ease his sister's discomfort.

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It seemed like hours had passed until Caroline felt strong enough to move, though the moment she did she wished she had not. Her back burned in agony and what was left of the back of her shredded dress clung to her skin making every motion that much more excruciating.

She set her teeth against the pain, willing her body to move as she slowly crawled to the water's edge of the stream just on the other side of the fallen tree. Cupping water into her trembling hands she splashed her face clean of her tears before taking a few small sips, wishing she could swallow handful after handful. She had learned her lesson long ago not to over indulge after a harsh beating such as this. It would only curdle in her stomach and vomiting while her back was spilt open as it was would only make the pain so much worse.

Carefully she eased her body back and leaned her side against the tree, staring vacantly across the slow-moving water trying not to think of things that would never come to pass. Hopes and dreams that would never be fulfilled. For this was her lot in life, a poor farmer's daughter in an even poorer village. Where even marrying a local boy, would not led her to an escape. Chances were that most of the young men who tried and failed to capture her attention would either be scared off by her imposing Father or prove to be just like him. Her only dream that she held tightly to was that her little brother would get away from all this mess one day. He, as a male, would be free to leave this place, expected to even, so that he may seek out his fortune in greener pastures. She vigilantly prayed for such a day to come to pass before the horrors of their Father either crushed him or even worst, turned him into a cold-hearted beast as well.

Strangely, she felt as if eyes were upon her, though with the state she was in she gave little care to it until she heard the snap of a branch. With nothing more than a broken bow to arm herself she cautiously questioned to the dark night around her, "Hello?"

Her breath sped up as the rustle of leaves and fast approaching foots steps echoed around her.

As a small body crashed through the bushes she exhaled in momentary relief before scolding, "Peter what are you doing here? Papa will tan your hide if he catches you out here after dark, and with me."

Peter dropped the bundle he was carrying to the ground beside her, kneeling with his head hung in shame, "It should have been me anyhow."

Caroline pressed her lips at the pain as she leaned forward to lift his chin, "Hey. Look at me." His blue eyes that matched her own filled with shameful tears as he glanced up to her, "Don't you ever say such things, understand?"

"But it was me. I was the one who was playing with the bow and broke it when I tripped." His voice cracked, "You were hurt protecting me."

"And that is as it should be." She told him softly, "You are my little brother, it is my duty and honor to protect you."

"But I am the boy. I should be the one protecting you." He pouted with his lower lip trembling.

Caroline laughed softly, "And someday you will. Someday you will grow big and strong. You will be kind and loving yet fierce and unbeatable." She grinned at him cheekily, "Someday there will be plenty of young ladies swooning at your feet over your great strength and charms."

"Ew yuck!" He exclaimed sticking his tongue out, "I am glad that I am only eight, I do not want to be like those older boys who chase after you!"

"Someday you will not mind as much." She grinned knowingly, "Now you need to get yourself back home and into bed before Papa finds you missing." When it looked as though he would protest she gazed at him sternly, "It will only make matters worse for us both Peter."

"Oh alright. Here," His small frame stood and wrapped an old wool cloak around her carefully before pulling from his pocket a bracelet made of purple flowers, "I stopped to make you this on the way as a thank you. I know it is not much but…"

"It's beautiful Peter." She said tenderly as she allowed him to place it around her wrist, "I shall cherish it always."

He blushed sweetly at her compliment swinging his arms, "Well at least until they die."

"No, even then I shall press their wilted petals and stems into a cloth to carry with me for all of my days." She grinned with a wink, "Just so I can forever remember how sweet my baby brother was before he went and grew up and left me."

Peter stood tall despite his short stature, "I shall never leave you behind Caroline. And someday I will be strong enough to protect you. You said so, remember?"

Caroline smiled to hide her true fears of their future, "Of course dear brother. Now off with you and be mindful when you sneak back inside to not wake Papa or Mama, you hear?"

"I promise sister." Leaning down he gentle brushed a kiss to her tear stained cheek, his whisper a soothing ale to her sorrows, "I love you Caroline."

"I love you too Peter. Always." She whispered to the wind as she watched his body be swallowed up by the darkness.

Sighing at her fate for the night, knowing it would be pointless to go traipsing about in the dark for the proper stick to reshape into a bow. A fact that her poor excuse of a Father no doubt had in mind when he assigned her the task of completing it before being allowed within her own home. Instead she clenched her jaw tightly as she gathered the sticks from the ground around her to start a small fire for light and warmth. She sent a silent thanks to her brother for the wherewithal to place a flint stone and a small knife within the pocket of the cloak. She had no doubt in her mind that if she had to rub the sticks together to try for a fire, it would make for a frigidly cold night.

Settling against the tree on her side, she attempted to ignore the throbbing pain of her back while letting the small flames warm her. Her stomach gave a low rumble causing her to inwardly wish her brother could have smuggled her out something to eat as well.

A few moments later a snap of a branch and a rustle of leaves was heard echoing through the trees once again. Thinking that her brother had come back, she didn't look up from the flames as she warmed her hands, "Peter I told you to go home."

"Excuse me Miss, I do not mean to intrude but might I warm myself by your fire?"

A husky accented voice of a man left her gasping in fear, her eyes following up from his booted feet, his lean legs and torso to his shadowed face.

Thinking quickly, she snatched the small knife from her pocket, holding it defensively before her chest with a hard glare, "I swear to you Sir if you think to accost me in these here woods you have another thing coming for you. My blade may be small but I will fight to the death. You shall only take my virtue from my cold dead body."

The man stepped back as if offended, his hands raised in front of him and his voice apologetic, "I am dreadfully sorry Miss. I meant you no ill will. I was out for a hunt earlier this evening and it seems someone has taken my horse from where I tied him down. I was simply hoping to make a trade with you, some warmth of your fire for perhaps a morsel and a drink from my supplies." He tapped the satchel that was slung across his chest, "But I can see you are in no mood for company so I shall be on my way. Good night."

Caroline eyed him suspiciously; the more he spoke to her the more it seemed she had made a terrible blunder. Or he was just that good at charming people into believing him to be sincere. As he turned to walk away she clenched her eyes shut making a rash decision, "Wait!"

"Aye Miss?" The man asked as he slowly turned around.

"I am sorry for my mistrust of you, I rarely trust anyone to be honest. But I suppose you may sit and enjoy my fire for a small repast."

His grayish-blue eyes lit up with joy and his lips formed a small smirk as he sat beside her, "I appreciate honest, no matter how blunt it may be. Thank you kindly, Miss…" He nodded graciously as he awaited her name.

"Miss Forbes." After a few seconds of hesitation, she sighed, "Caroline Forbes. And you might be?"

He stuck out his hand in offer, "Niklaus Mikaelson. But please, call me Klaus."

Mesmerized by the twinkle in his soulful eyes she didn't think twice when she held out her hand out of decorum. She gasped in pain so loudly at the movement that she missed his low hiss as the flowers around her wrist brushed against his skin.

"What is the matter? Are you hurt?" Klaus asked as he moved closer to her.

"I'm fine." She panted breathlessly.

Looking at her sternly Klaus lifted a single brow, "I can see the state of your back, Miss Forbes."

Caroline fumbled with the cloak that had fallen form her shoulders, "Tis nothing." She attempted to smile, which came off more as a grimace, as sweat began building up on her forehead.

"Tis not nothing. It looks to me as if someone took a switch to your back." When she looked ready to protest he silenced her with an empathetic tone, "I myself am regrettably no stranger to the wrong end of a switch."

The two shared a secret look, a look that spoke well of their shame and pain, at being at the mercy of another.

Klaus's soft voice broke the silence that surrounded them, his voice sounding strangely hesitant as if he was unsure of why he was offering such a thing. "I have a special tonic that will help to ease your suffering if you'd like?"

Caroline bit her lower lip before giving in with a nod of her head bringing an odd sigh of relief from Klaus. "Do you always carry such remedies with you on a hunt?"

"I never leave home without it. One can never be too careful while in the woods alone." He spoke with a chuckle as he carefully hid his hand at his side, digging his nails into his palm, allowing a few drops of his blood to trickle into his hip-flask. "Here, drink this."

She grinned thankfully before taking a sniff of the liquid, "What is this?"

"Just a bit of watered down ale and a few secret ingredients. I cannot attest for the taste but regardless you must drink it all."

Cautiously Caroline raised the flask to her lips and took a sip, the look on her face as the first taste hit her tongue brought a bout of laughter from Klaus, "You were not lying." She eyed the offending item, "Do I truly have to drink it _all_ down?"

"I'm afraid so, though the taste does improve the more you drink it." He chuckled at her disbelieving glare, "Alright you caught me, though you do become desensitized to it."

Caroline huffed but continued to sip from the flask nonetheless, the effects taking hold of her within minutes. "This really does work wonders, doesn't it?" She exclaimed as she cautiously tested stretching her back.

Klaus smiled conspiringly, "That is does Miss."

"Well, since you have come to my rescue and all, I guess I can give you leave to call me by my given name." She announced with a small blushing grin.

"I'd be honored, Caroline." He tested her name, making it sound like nothing she had head before. Soft, almost as if he was caressing each letter.

After a few moments of silence, watching her inconspicuously as she stared off into the flames with the sweat drying on her forehead and her cheeks no longer looking quite as pale, he quietly asked, "So tell me, what is a young woman such as yourself doing out here, alone and injured, in the middle of the night?"

Truth be told Klaus knew very well why she was here, he had been watching after all. He had not lied when he said he was out on a hunt, she did not need to know just what or _whom_ he was hunting.

He had caught word that the retched excuse for a vampire Katerina had traveled through this area not so long ago. Though he was beginning to think it was a false lead when there were no signs pointing that she had ever crossed through this poor and decrepit village.

Upset and angered at the clear waste of his time, he had set his sights on curing his frustrations with fresh blood when he had happened across the scene of Caroline being beaten by her Father. At first, he did not care enough to stop it, thinking to make the most of it by making all but the boy and the girl his meal for the evening, but then he observed Caroline's face and felt his heart pound within his chest.

Even with her tear soaked cheeks she was beautiful. It was her eyes that truly gave him pause, they showed such misery and pain yet they held such strength and light within them.

Just as he was readying to make his presence known her brute of a Father had stopped. He was left to watch as Caroline struggled to right herself, he felt a kinship with her, he too recalled a time of his live when he would rather have bit off his lower lip than give his tormentor the satisfaction of hearing his screams.

Klaus had begun to step from the forest's edge when he was stopped once more by her younger brother darting out from the bushes. After hearing her talk with him, that strange connection he felt with this girl had only strengthened. He recalled many times of holding such talks with his youngest brother.

She was beautiful, strong and full of so much light. Yet she was suffering in ways she did not deserve. Klaus could only hope that someday her brother would be strong enough to get her away from their lot in life.

"I do not wish to speak of it, if it is all the same to you."

Caroline's cautiously spoken words abruptly pulled him from his inner musings. Offering her a soft smile, "I understand Love. To speak of one's tormentors only serves to make it that much more difficult to cope with as well as gives them more power than they deserve."

Caroline wanted to deny what he was saying, she wanted to scoff and tell him he had no right to assume anything, but the look upon his striking face paired with the sorrow and understanding in his eyes lead her to believe he had not lied when he said he knew personally what she was going through, "Thank you. So, do you and your family live nearby?" She instantly regretted asking as Klaus's body went tense, "Sorry, I do not mean to pry."

"No, it is fine Caroline. My family and I had," He trailed off for a moment to formulate a response, "A bit of a falling out you might say."

Caroline studied his face, clearly reading that he felt guilt for whatever had transpired yet that he also felt it was justified. The biggest emotion she could see, that he clearly was trying to mask, was the loneliness in his eyes. Carefully she placed a hand to his arm, "I am sure it will all work out in the end. Who knows, maybe in time you and your family will mend what is broken so that you shall not be alone."

Klaus offered her no response, only patting her hand she gently laid upon his arm with a melancholy grin. If she only knew what had transpired, he did not think she would be as open and optimistic. Out of all of his siblings Elijah was the only one left undaggered at the moment. Still, after Elijah's betrayal with helping Katerina to escape, ruining his chances to become who he was truly meant to be; he was currently hiding their siblings away, lording them over his brother's head as revenge.

"So then, where are you from? I have not seen you around here before."

Klaus smiled grateful at her change of topic, "I do not have a single place to call my home, the world is my home."

"So, you travel." That spark in her eyes grew excited and wistful pushing Klaus to launch into tales over what he had seen of the world and its wonders. It wasn't long before the soft cadence of his voice as he told her of far-off places she could only dream of seeing for herself lulled her into the first peaceful slumber she ever had.

One he was sure she was asleep, Klaus gently moved her to a more comfortable position, feeling an odd sense of relief that his blood had healed her tattered back as he moved her cloak to check. His keen eyes, even in the dark of night with nothing but the low flames of the fire, noticed through the tears and rips of her dress the multitude of scars that covered her skin.

Scooting away from her he leaned against the fallen tree his mind caught up in a riot of thoughts. This was not a once off; this beautiful creature had been beaten cruelly over the course of her short life. But no matter the connection he felt with her, no matter her captivating inner and outward beauty, she was in the end of little consequence to him. She was after all, nothing but a human and forming a connection with one such as her, would only damage her in the end. His darkness would no doubt smother her light long before some human ailment took her from this world.

Klaus withdrew a small sketchbook from his satchel and set to his honorable task of immortalizing her captivating face.

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Caroline awoke to the sound of bird chirping in the trees and the sunshine filtering through their branches onto her face. Sitting up slowly she smiled widely when she realized that the tonic Klaus had given her last night had worked like a charm.

Glancing around her she felt disappointed to find he was nowhere in sight, but having little choice than to brush such feelings off, she stood to gather her things and set about her task of crafting a new bow.

That was when she seen it.

Perched innocently against the fallen log was a crudely yet seemingly well-crafted bow waiting for her with a small roll of parchment tied to its riser.

Unrolling the simple paper, she gasped at the image so beautifully drawn upon it. It was of her face; somehow the simple charcoal drawing had captured the light from the fire, bathing her in an ethereal glow. Her eyes were what pulled her in the most; they held a dash of excitement yet were filled with such a wistful quality that it brought tears to her eyes. Down on the lower corner was a message left for her.

 _Thank you for sharing your light with me. I will remember it always. - Klaus._

Caroline smiled at the message before rolling it back up and put it into her cloak pocket, planning to place it under the loose board in her room for safe keeping so that for years to come she could recall that even though it had always seemed unlikely, not all men were absolute brutes.

Picking up the bow she ran her fingers over the wood and tested the bow string, marveling at its craftsmanship. Thankfully he had made it to be sturdy yet look as though she had spent all night working on it herself.

Worrying her lower lip with her teeth she could only hope her Father would feel the same. Knowing there was only one way to find out, she slung the bow over her shoulder and set off towards her home.

For some reason the closer she came to their small house at the edge of the village, the more she wished to turn away. Caroline chalked it up to her nerves over what waited for her with her Father; yet the hairs on the back of her neck stood at attention as she stopped at the front door.

She leaned back to glance towards the sky; with the height of the sun there should be the sounds of her Papa's grumbles, of her Mother fixing breakfast while Peter was outback feeding the chickens and goats. But there was nothing, no baying of the goats, no clucking of the chickens and the house sat in deathly silence.

Steeling her nerves and swallowing past her dread, Caroline slowly and quietly opened the door only to wish she never had.

Her chest began heaving with panicked breaths at the sight before her. Her Mother sat on the floor beside the dining table, her knees pressed tightly to her chest as she rocked mechanically back and forth staring vacantly at something on the floor just out of Caroline's vision.

Gulping down at the fear that clenched her throat at what it could be, she slowly inched closer to her Mother, "Mama, what happened?" Her whispered voice shook as her eyes quickly scanned the room for her father, feeling very little relief that he was nowhere in sight.

Her Mother continued to rock, her voice sounding so dead and shallow that Caroline could only make out a few words, "…found him sneaking back in…Peter he…he told the truth of the bow…your Papa was so angry...so undeniably angry…"

Caroline inched next to the long dining table where her Mother sat on the floor, two tiny feet and legs coming into view. Afraid to speak, not wanting to believe what her eyes were telling her, she asked calmly, "Mama, what's wrong with Peter?"

Her eyes never left the sight of her brother's body on the floor, with his neck twisted at such an odd angle as her mother explained stiltedly, "Your Papa was so angered at his deception and to make matters worse Peter argued back. Why would he argue back Caroline? He should have known better. He knows what would happen if he did."

Caroline's blue eyes filled with fire and tears as she snarled through her teeth, "You are blaming Peter for this? My brother, _your son_ , lays dead at your feet." She choked on the words but powered through as she began screaming, "At the hands of your retched husband and that is all you can say! He should have known better?!" She chuckled humorously, "Pity us the fouls for angering that bastard; for then it gives him full rights to slaughter us in our own home!"

Her mother stood rapidly from the floor, tears pouring from her angered eyes, "You will not take that tone of him. He is your Father!"

Caroline shook her head, doubling over and clutching her stomach as she laughed in disbelief, "You stand there and dare to cry?! All the while defending him?! He who killed your own son!"

Something snapped within Caroline, something cold and dark, something she never knew existed within her very bones. She charged her mother, pushing her roughly against the wall, roaring in her face, "And what did you do, you worthless bitch?! Did you stand idly by and do nothing as always? Watching on as he killed him?!"

Caroline gasped as the realization set it when her Mother's eyes flickered around the room, looking anywhere than at her own daughter who's face was directly before her. Growling lowly Caroline pushed her nose against her mother's demanding, "Tell. Me. Now."

"I did nothing. I did not try and stop it." Her Mother whimpered as she cowered in fear at a side of her daughter she had never seen.

Caroline's lips, with tears streaming down her soft cheeks, pulled into a vicious smirk as her hand went into her cloak pocket, "Then I fear Mother, your fate has been cast."

With a savage snarl filled with pain Caroline thrust the small knife directly into her Mother's heart.

Letting her Mother's body fall to the floor, Caroline's chest rose and fell rapidly with all the emotions coursing through her like a storm. So caught up in her immense pain she failed to hear the rapid footsteps charging towards her until it was too late. She choked out a garbled breath, glancing down to find the end of a bloody sword sticking out from the center of her chest.

Her Father yelled behind her, the words lost to her as the sword was viciously yanked out once again and her body collapsed to the floor beside her dead Mother.

Wanting nothing more than to die beside her dear baby brother, Caroline dug her fingers into the soft wood of the floor, crawling her way to him even as her Father pierced her again and again with his blade, his yelling drowned out by her own screams.

His words meant nothing, the pain and sorrow meant nothing, giving into the screams meant nothing to her as she took her final breath with her hand firmly wrapped around Peter's small cold one.

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Caroline awoke with a gasp, clutching the lush comforter to her chest as she felt a wave of dizziness assault her. The light creeping in through the crack in the heavy and expensive looking drapes seem harsher somehow as she tried and failed to collect her thoughts on her whereabouts and what had occurred.

And then it hit her.

Her Mother. Slayed by her very own hands.

Caroline whimpered.

Peter. Her poor sweet baby brother. Killed by their own Father by trying to be brave.

She croaked out a sob.

Her own Father had finally killed her. And now she would be damned to Hell for all eternity for turning into him and taking a life.

Her eyes rounded and she quickly shoved the blanket away from her, pulling the soft cotton nightdress away from her chest. Glancing down at her findings, Caroline wasn't sure which occupied her mind the most; the fact that she was in a nightdress that was by far more luxurious that anything she had ever owned or that the skin of her chest was free from any scars or markings that should be there from her Father's deadly blade.

At the sound of the door creaking open she quickly let go of the neckline of the nightdress, scrambling to reach for the lush comforter to shield herself from whomever the intruder might be.

"Oh good, you are awake."

Her eyes rounded as she sat stunned, instantly recognizing the man from the night before, "Klaus?"

He smiled so widely that two matching dimples appeared on his scruff covered cheeks, dimples that had she been able to see them in the dark of that night she certainly would have blushed at how much they gave him a boyish charm.

"Aye, I apologize that I was not here when you awoke. I was drawn away by ah, shall we say an unwanted but much needed guest." Klaus's smile held a hint of devious intent as he walked further into the room.

Running a hand over her forehead, Caroline blinked in confusion, "I do not understand. What is happening? How am I here? Why am I here?" She gasped in horror, "You did not change my clothing yourself, did you?"

Sitting calmly in the chair he had stationed next to her bed, the place he had surprisingly found himself in quiet often as he waited for her to wake. Thoroughly entranced by her rambles he bit back an awed chuckle at the many facets of her character knowing it would only offend her in this delicate state. He placed a single hand over his chest while lowering his chin slightly, his eyes spoke of nothing but honesty as he gravely told her, "I swear to you Caroline, I would never take such liberties upon your person unless they were direly warranted. In this case however, I would move to soothe your concerns and tell you that I commanded a housemaid to handle cleaning you up and changing your tattered clothing."

It was at that moment that the sounds of the maids working throughout the house, every scrape of a brooms bristles, every clank of a pot, every hum of whatever ditty they sang crashed into her ears, making all the sounds bleed together and echo throughout her mind. And beneath it all she heard soft wet poundings so deeply it was as if her could feel them, as if they were calling to her like a siren's melody.

"Hey, hey. Look at me Caroline." Klaus's gentle cadence lured her in, once he had her unfocused eyes resting upon him and the veins beneath her eyes receded he continued, "I know that it is all overwhelming right now. You are feeling and hearing things beyond what you reckon as normal. But allow me to assure you, all will be well and I shall explain everything."

"What is happening to me?" She stuttered out as she panted.

Klaus smirked, though his eyes bled with compassion and just a touch of sympathy, "Well that is a long story."

"Well then how about you start at the beginning." Caroline snapped before covering her mouth with her hand in surprise, "I…I am sorry, I have no idea what is coming over me. It is as if…"

Klaus winced grimly, "It is as if you are feeling every single emotion you could possibly think of all at once and more intensely than you could ever comprehend. I promise you that does get easier to cope with and sort out in time."

A spark of hope rushed through her, the beginnings of a brilliant smile gracing her lips as she leaned over the bed to grasp his hand, "You saved me the night by the fire did you not? That is why I am here! You brought me here and I have been down with a terrible fever." She released his hand, leaning back against the headboard with her hands pressed together against her lips as she giggled, "That means it was all just a horrendous nightmare!"

There were not a great many things that Klaus felt remorse over in the past five hundred or so years of his existence, but this moment here and now, of having to destroy that brilliant light of hope from her stunning and elated blue eyes ranked just below having failed his own baby brother in such a way that set them all on this course they were all on now.

"Caroline."

"Yes?" Her smile fell instantly by the look on his face, the remorse and sorrow in his eyes, the tight set to his jaw told her more than words ever could. Shaking her head frantically she began to scream louder and louder with each denial of the truth.

"No. No, no, no! He's not! He can't be! Please! I can lose him. Not him! I was to protect him! _She_ was supposed to protect him!"

Amidst her cries and wails of agony Klaus made a judgement call and heaved himself out of the chair and onto the bed, scooping her up into his arms. He shushed her softly, running his fingers through her golden hair as she wept against his sturdy chest all the while thinking that he had never expected this to happen. He had given her his blood as a way to ease her pain, he had no idea that her poor excuse of a Father would kill her. It was by complete chance that he passed by her home, hearing her screams. Klaus had a hard time deciding which was the better fate for her, dying by the hands of her Father and ceasing to exist all together or completing the transition only to be cursed to carry her suffering for all time.

Once her sobs had quieted down to soft hiccups and sniffles Klaus began weaving his tale of who he was and who she could become if she saw fit to choose. It marveled him beyond his kin of how she tears affected him. With most he found their cries abhorrent; unless they were due to the pain he had inflicted. Where with his own sister he often found her tears an annoyance, with Caroline he discovered he only wanted to console her, to be the one to help ease her pain. It was the oddest thing. For once, after so long, to want to be something to someone other than a living nightmare. To want to connect with someone he hardly knew yet felt deep down within his very bones that somehow; they were the same. And not only by their circumstances of life but of something that was far beyond his recognition at this time.

Klaus fell silent after his explanation, watching her intently as she pulled her soft body from his embrace and began to pace the room deep in thought.

"So, I am a vampire? Or more accurately, once I feed on human blood I will be a vampire."

Klaus knew she was not looking for a response from him, she was simply sussing out the details of her new life in attempts to come to terms with it. Truth be told he marveled at her control and her ability to think things through. Few in her current condition, not to mention the situation that placed her here, would be able to think calmly and rationally with the echoing sounds of the human hearts of the staff swirling around them.

She was utterly extraordinary.

Caroline suddenly stopped, her hands frantically rubbing over her wrist, "The flowered bracelet, there was a flowered bracelet upon my arm. Did you come across it?"

Klaus stood from the bed walking towards the dresser next to the washroom, "I have it here." He waved a hand towards the sentimental object in question, "I admit that I had overheard your discussion with your brother and upon discovering your body I knew it would hold immeasurable value to you so I had the maid place it here."

Caroline sighed in relief and with tears welling in her eyes she reached forward to touch it only to give Klaus a questioning looking when he stopped her.

"You will not want to do that Caroline." He regretfully explained, "This bracelet, lovely as it may be, is crafted of the flower I warned you of."

Her shimmering blue eyes stared at the flowers, "So not only do I have to endure his demise, I cannot touch the one thing I have left of him without feeling even more pain? Is there no end to this suffering?" She asked rhetorically, "What is the point of living forever if it is to only be filled with such agony?"

Klaus took hold of her shoulders gently smiling tenderly to her, "Hey, remember I spoke of witches and their many talents." She nodded, "I am sure with the witches in my employ they can find a way for you to hold this priceless treasure and keep it with you for all eternity. As for the point of this life," He forged on with a shrug of his shoulders, "That is entirely up to you Love. You can travel, see all that the world has to offer. Art, music and," He brushed the back of his hand over her cheek, "genuine beauty. You can have all of it; all you have to do is feed. Or you can choose to die, to leave this life and all its pain and beauty behind." Klaus gulped, completely enchanted by her vivid blue eyes and in utter disbelief at what his was about to offer her, "But, if you choose to live, to see the wonders of this world and create your own; I would be honored to be the one there beside you through it all."

Caroline search his eyes and, even though she knew so little of him, she felt a connection beyond anything she could ever imagine. For the first time in her life she felt as if there was finally a single soul in this cruel world that she could learn to trust.

Klaus's eyes rounded, a hushed breath ghosting from his lips in awe, as she cupped the side of his face with tears in her eyes, "We shall never have to be alone again. We shall have each other through it all. Thick and thin, come what may; I shall never betray you. Though from you, I only ask the same."

Such loyalty was never given as sweetly nor offered as honestly as it was from her. No hidden agendas like from the many vampires and witches abound, no secret whispers behind closed doors as a way to overthrow him. No, not from her. Not from _Caroline_. She offered him more than even his own blood ever had and only asked for the same in return.

Steadying his shaking hand, he in turn placed his palm to her delicate cheek, "No lies, no betrayals. We will be each other's truest confidant." He could only hope that once she learned how dark he truly could be she would not regret this choice, for now that it was spoken aloud the connect he felt to her deepened within his breast and he would never be able to let her go.

Caroline nodded once before stepping back with her hands folded demurely down her front, "Good. Now that that is settled, whom shall I be feeding upon?"

Klaus smirked devilishly as he held out his arm for her to take, "I happen to have the perfect blood source for you Sweetheart." She quirked a finely shaped eyebrow at him as he led her down the hallway, "I think you will find this means of your transition quiet satisfying."

Klaus guided her down a set of stone steps and through a twisting corridor of cells in the lower depths of his estate. The scones firelight cast shadows up the stone walls and helped to set the ominous mood with a dripping sound echoing through the hall.

Klaus stopped them just outside a large wooden door with a tiny barred window. He leaned his body against the adjacent wall and waved her forward, "Go ahead Love, have at it."

Rubbing her arms for warmth she slowly walked towards the door and opened it slowly with trepidation, glancing for reassurance from Klaus one last time before inhaling deeply and walking in the darkened cell.

Her nervousness fled her the instant she seen who awaited her there in that dark cell.

Her Father stood sluggishly from the soiled ground, his mouth opening to no doubt berate her. But he never gained the chance.

Caroline launched herself across the room with a bellow of rage, her fangs dropping and instantly sinking into the soft malleable skin of his neck. She clutched him so tightly she heard bones break within his quivering body. His arms that had been trying to fight her off beginning to lose their grip.

"No!" Caroline snarled as she released his gapping neck allowing his body to crumple to the floor. "This is not enough for the likes of him. I care not if it is evil, I care not if it damns me to Hell. He should be made to suffer, over and over again, for all that he has done. All that he had stolen from me! Granting him death is to grant him a kindness he does not deserve."

Klaus was stunned in sheer disbelief at her control. A freshly turned vampire, with the blood of a human, her very own tormentor no less, should not have such a tight rein on her control. She amazed him and enthralled him with each and every moment he spent with her.

Strutting slowly towards her, his eyes slid over her beautifully dark face, her inner light still shining brightly through her reddened vampire eyes. Brushing his hands over her cheeks and down her neck he leaned in whispering seductively into her ear, "Hell cannot contain us Sweetheart. Ones such as us will live on forever." He pulled back slightly, their eyes locking and hypnotizing the other before he shook his head slightly. Allowing his gaze to flicker to the cowering and sobbing man on the dungeon floor, "Now with that being said, ones such as the filth upon the floor; there is a special place in Hell for them. But you Caroline hold his fate in your hands. You and you alone may decide when he shall meet that maker or you can become the maker of his own Hell and whichever punishments you deem fit to dole out upon him."

"How?"

Klaus smirked darkly, "Turn him. Let his suffering be the balm to your soul. Let his screams ease your pain and once you feel you have had enough, then and only then will you send him on his way to death with a stake straight through his black heart."

Caroline jutted her chin up, "No."

"No?" Klaus questioned, wondering if he had pushed her too far.

"His suffering is not to soothe my soul. His suffering will be made as payment for all that he has done, all that he has taken. His screams will be penance for snuffing out my dear brother's light and laughter." Caroline swiftly turned and was suddenly kneel right beside her dying father. She looked up startled, not used to her newly acquired speed, but letting that go for now she looked to Klaus for direction on what to do next.

"You must feed him your blood, Love." Klaus watched on in intense anticipation as she bit into her wrist of one arm while holding her flailing father down with the other before forcing her blood into his mouth and down his throat. Her calculating eyes drifted back to him and Klaus felt the breath all but leave his lungs at this magnificent creature. This avenging angel set out to extract revenge against the weak, yet somehow able to fill the most powerful and darkest creature on the planet with her warmth and light.

"In a moment, you will kill him." A malicious smirk grew over his lush lips at the pure relief the man held in his eyes, Klaus so looked forward to crushing in under the weight of his next words, "Then after a few hours he will awaken and need to feed upon human blood to complete the turn." Caroline nodded her head at the information he had given her just a short time ago, "And then his real torture can begin. Over and over again you can kill him, but unless you cut off his head, yank out his heart or drive a wooden stake through that offending appendage, with every death he shall arise again so that you may continue his everlasting Hell."

The smell of the quivering man soiling himself overtook the cell, with her lips curled in disgust Caroline forcefully grabbed his chin, yanking his head to look her in the eyes, "See you soon _Papa_." She sneered his unworthy title before the crack of his neck resounded off the stone walls.

Caroline shoved his body away from her and stood on shaking legs, ready to collapse from the sheer emotional stress. Klaus quickly flashed to her, scooping her up into his arms and scanning over her face worriedly, "Are you alright Caroline?"

"No." She said honestly with a quick glance at her Father before looking up into Klaus's eyes so trustingly with her inner strength and convictions shining through, "I do not like whom I turned into just now. But with him, it was justified."

"You did wonderfully Sweetheart." Klaus praised her as he carried her from the cell, "Now let us go and get you cleaned up and fed, shall we?"

Her grip tightened on his shoulder, "You will not let me kill anyone, will you?" She blushed at the look he gave her and rushed to explain, "I do not wish to become _him_. I shall deal out his punishment as he so rightly deserves, but when it comes to others, I do not wish to kill."

"You are a stunning creature Caroline." Klaus responded in awe before regretfully having to explain the realities of just who and what they were, "But there will come a time or two when you may not have the luxury of such a choice. If it is discovered just who and what you are now, people will try and kill or harm you."

Tilting her head to the side sweetly as he carried her up the stairs of the dungeons she asked, "Do these people come after you often?"

Klaus chuckled smugly, "Of course, though they are often surprise with the strength behind my fangs." Glancing at her face he rushed to assure her, "But worry not Love, I shall protect you."

Caroline's big shinning blue eyes looked deeply into his own so intensely that it, along with her next words stopped him in his tracks, "Then I shall only kill when it is warranted in my protection as well as yours."

Gulping down passed the rush of emotions Klaus whispered in wonder, "You wish to protect _me_?"

"Of course." She scoffed as if it was the most ridiculous thing she had ever heard, until she took notice of his posture and of the amazed wonder and disbelief held within his stunning eyes. Lifting the arm that was slung across his front, she moved her hand from his shoulder to cup the side of his handsome face, "Has no one ever sought to protect you?"

With his jaw opened on a gasp Klaus slowly shook his head no.

"Well then, it looks as though there is a first for everything. I gained myself a protector, a dark knight that stormed in on his own feet to save me from my horrible fate. While you…"

Klaus stopped her from speaking, his tone reverent as he gazed at her in astonishment, "I have gained myself an avenging angel of light. One that I hope will not be set on leaving my side any time soon."

Caroline's smiled so brightly that it was as if it was made of the purest of sunbeams, "If he will allow me to, I would be honored to keep his company. To learn more of this supernatural world I am now a part of as well as the man himself."

"It would be my greatest honor to offer you a place within my home." Klaus smiled with a hint of boyish charm before warning her, "But I am a dark man Caroline, filled with a dark past."

Caroline huffed as he began to carry her down the hallway to take her back to her room, "I gathered as much with all that transpired down below. I tell you truly now that I am not frightened of you."

"And I'd have you no other way." Stopping outside of her door he gently set her to her feet, picking up her hand and laying a gentle kiss upon it before stepping back at a respectable distance, "I shall send a maid up momentarily to assist you with your bathing and to guide you down to the study once you are finished." He glanced down to her bare hand, "I wish to remind you to steer clear of any sunlight, the burn is not a feeling you will wish to discover. I shall have a daylight ring crafted for you within a days' time."

Caroline's bare feet slide across the space separating them, her body moving as graceful as any royalty he had met. Standing up on the tips of her toes she placed a soft kiss upon his cheek whispering, "Thank you Klaus." Pulling away slightly, her tone firm, "For everything."

He stood there in stunned disbelief long after she had disappeared behind her closed door. He huffed bashfully and rolled his eyes at himself mockingly before setting off to the tasks at hand. His mind wandering over what having her in his life could mean, his hand rubbing his chest at the unfamiliar feelings bubbling up within his breast. It frightened him to no end to think that she could become such a drastic weakness to him, that he could be doing nothing but dooming her to the fate that all those around him and close to him ultimately suffered.

A flash of her eyes, of her smile, of her golden locks and her enthralling personality ran through his head and was enough to stamp down such thoughts for the time being.

He wanted her, by any means and any dangers it required. And if he was not mistaken, she wanted him as well.

Passing a maid in the hallway he stopped her, "Miss Forbes requires assistance with her lady's bath. You will be sure to pass along the message to all those within my staff that she is to be treated with the respect the Lady of the house requires."

The maid complied with a curtsy and was off to do his bidding leaving Klaus whistling a jaunty tune as he walked into his study to pen a missive to the local witch. He needed to find a daylight ring fit for a Queen.

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I don't even know where this came from, but I hope you all liked it. Don't forget to check out the new chapter to The Girl.

As always, thank you so much for reading!


	27. Matters of the Heart

AH/AU. A Klaroline historical story.

This is the first of this type I have tried my hand at. I hope you all enjoy it! It took forever to get this thing done.

Thank you, Ashleigh and Eve, for keeping me going during this whole process! You girls are the best!

This has NSFW moments.

Please excuse any mistakes.

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Caroline's stockinged foot slid up his back, wrinkling his waistcoat with each upwards and downwards pass. Her naked bottom sat perched on her tall cushioned stool with his fingers pressed firmly in its soft flesh. Her rose colored dress fanned out behind her while the front was clutched tightly in her fist. Only one of her long stocking covered legs and the man currently feasting on her nether regions were laid bare to the morning sunlight filtering in through the window.

Her chest heaved within the confines of her corset as her other hand gripped and pulled at his long blonde hair that had long since been pulled from its tie.

A deep throaty hum vibrated against her core at her tug pulling a gasp from her lips that turned into a soft whining moan as his hot tongue slithered around her throbbing clit.

He pulled back just a hair, his heated breath warming her center, "Shh Love. Your Lady's maid will hear."

Her rosy cheeks deepened in color as she realized she had forgotten herself, as she so often did when it came to him, yet again.

Her hips undulated, seeking out the friction and pleasure only his mouth could give her. She felt his chuckling breath puff over her soaking core a mere second before his lips closed around her throbbing nub.

His suction combined with the rapid flicking of his sweet tongue had her gripping his hair tighter, her head falling back as her climax rushed over her trembling body. Caroline's mouth fell open with a soft cry as he continued licking her vigorously, his calloused hands pulling her hips closer to his face as he extended her high.

The sudden sound of a rapid knocking at her door had her scrambling with a gasp of surprise. Glancing down in fear she was met with equally frightened gray eyes.

"My Lady, are you all right?" The voice of her Lady's maid inquired at the same time the handle on her door began to turn.

Thinking quickly, she flung her obscenely large skirt and petticoats over his form effectively hiding him from view just as the door creaked open.

"Is everything alright My Lady? You look a touch flush."

Caroline cleared her throat, sitting high and putting just enough sustain in her voice required to stop the woman from entering her room any further, "Everything is fine Mary. 'Tis just these blasted stockings. You know how I loathe them."

Mary took a step forward with an understanding grin, "They are fickle things. Would you care for my assistance?"

"No!" Caroline shouted, shocking her lady's maid before remembering herself and continuing calmly, "No, your assistance is not required. I'd thank you though to give me a few more moments to myself."

Mary bobbed a quick curtsy and turned to leave only to stop with a slightly stern warning, "The Viscount is expecting you down to break your fast shortly." A light blush hued her round cheeks, "And might I say My Lady, the young suitor he has in mind for you is quite fetching to look at."

"Duly noted." Caroline spoke dryly. "Please inform my Father I shall be down momentarily."

With a quick bob of her head Mary took her leave.

Neither moved for a few moments after the door clicked closed. Caroline nibble on her lower lip as her reality sank in. She could only fathom a guess as to what he was thinking beneath her dress as his forlorn sigh brushed against her inner thigh.

Lifting her skirt, she whispered with a heavy voice unable to look at him as she did, "You can come out of hiding now Niklaus."

Her blue eyes glanced towards him as he righted his slightly shabby waistcoat in her full-length gold gilded mirror.

In attempts to break the tension she giggled, "You know I've often joked that my skirts are large enough to hide a person. I never did imagine putting that theory to the test."

She winced as his grunt was her only response. Nibbling her lower lip again, a bad habit for a young lady of her station as he Father always reprimanded, she closed the distance between them and helped to fix the back of his clothing.

Caroline quickly pulled her hand back when he jolted as if she had burned him with her touch. Though in his mind perhaps she had, she thought sadly as she rubbed her hands together anxiously.

"Are you truly going to wed this sod?" His voice was soft and quiet but his tone rang loud and clear in her mind.

"What would you have me do Niklaus?" She pleaded with him as he turned to face her, "What _can_ I do?"

"Be with me, Love. Run away with me Caroline."

She gasped in astonishment, her eyes rounding as he stepped closer taking hold of her left hand and incasing it within both of his work-hardened palms.

His voice filled with passion and love as he professed, "I know I do not have much to offer you. I cannot keep you in the life of luxury you are accustomed to. But Sweetheart I can offer you so much more. I can give you a life filled with love and adventure. Of seeing the world together as you have always dreamed. It is not much but I do have enough to see us off and secure our passage on a ship. To keep us warm and fed for the weeks to come until I find another place of employ."

Caroline's eyes danced between his, searching for what he did not know so he rushed to continue in their limited time left.

"What can any man your Father deems worthy offer you? Can they offer you what I do in kind? No Caroline." Niklaus shook his head dejectedly as he thought of what would lay instore for her, "You will be nothing more than a trinket, much like those that sit upon your shelves. Brought down only to be dusted before they are placed back again, long forgotten. There will be children, of that I am sure, but only enough to secure an heir as well as a backup. No love. No laughter. No world full of wonders for you to see. Nothing more than a title and a dowry. Those will be your only worth."

Caroline's blue eyes brimmed with tears and upon seeing this he moved hastily forward cupping her delicate cheek as he shushed her tenderly, "I'm sorry Love. I do not say such harsh things to upset you."

"I know." She croaked. "I know that just as I know all these things you speak of are true."

"Then come away with me my precious Love." He bent down slightly staring in her eyes as he begged, "My light, my heart, my love. Marry _me_. Build your life with _me."_

Caroline gasped at his words and feeling emboldened by her look of wonder he pressed his body against hers. His voice echoing deep within her chest, "Marry me Caroline. Be my wife for all time as I long to be your husband in every sense of the word."

She felt his hard body against her and even though she knew he meant more than just the carnal sense, her mind couldn't help but travel down the path they had never gone. Sure, they had begun dabbling into the lustful side of their secret relationship but that was a line they had yet to cross. Both had wanted to dearly, but to cross the line could mean ruination for her and chains and whips, if not death, for him.

A person of his background simply did not dally with one of her station and social standings in life. She thought in disgust. He was far more of a gentleman than most of the titled dandies with all their flop and flare.

He laid his forehead to hers sighing as she melted into him before whispering tenderly, "I love you Caroline. I always have, I always will."

"Niklaus." She breathed sweetly against his lips.

"Say yes my darling Love. Put me out of my misery and say you will be mine."

Caroline opened her mouth, to say what she was not sure of, when a quick tap on her door broke their moment.

"My Lady, you had better hurry before your Father works himself up into a tizzy." Mary's muffled voice sounded from the other side of the door.

"I have to go." Caroline whispered as she extracted herself from his arms. Picking up her skirts she hurried across her floor.

With a swish of her dress and the click of the door he was left standing there alone. His heart clenching at what he had saw within her blue orbs at the interruption.

Relief.

With a heavy heart, he waited a few minutes more, tormented by the smell of her all around him before he marched silently out her door and down the back hall designed for the servants.

He was stopped when he reached the servants stairwell by a butler before he could make his full escape.

"You! Boy! What are you doing at the upper levels of the estate? This is no place for you."

Niklaus spun in his heels with his chin held high his cold voice echoing in the small area, "Believe me I am aware. The Lady requested firewood for her suite. I was merely seeing to its delivery."

The imposing man eyes him critically with a harsh curl of his lip, "Well now that it is done be on your way back to the stables where you belong. And see to it that in the future you are more mindful of the time. You could have caught the Lady still in her rooms."

Niklaus nodded his head with a short bow that was required between the lesser and higher rankings of the staff before making hast to get out of this home that reminded him nothing but of her and all that stood within their way.

XXX

Caroline had tried her hardest not to huff or grumble under her breath throughout the morning meal. She clenched her teeth, offering more of a grimace than a smile, when her Father suggested they all take a turn through the gardens.

She had never been so grateful for her Father's busy and demanding schedule. Just as they had begun to ready themselves for their stroll he received an important missive that demanded his immediate attention. Thus, putting an end to their impromptu and unwanted walk.

Father and daughter escorted the young man outside to bid him their apologies and farewell. Niklaus brought the man's horse around to the front of the estate and Caroline tried not to feel hurt when he never glanced her way to share a secret smile as they were oft to do.

"I grow tired and quite frankly I am fed up with this nonsense Caroline." Her Father's voice boomed loudly beside her after the man and his horse were out of earshot.

Feigning innocence and confusion Caroline turn and looked at her father with wide eyes, "Whatever do you mean Father?"

"You know very well what I speak of child, do not play coy with me. You've had a better life and afforded more opportunities than those of your own social class. At your dearly departed Mother's insistence I had you tutored from the best scholars my family's money could buy. I did all this for you even when educating a woman is as taboo...as...things I shall not name around your delicate ears." He ranted in anger.

Caroline gently laid a hand to his arm as his face reddened, "Father, calm yourself. You know what the doctors have said."

"Blast the doctors! And blast your Mother for making me agree to her terms for your life on her deathbed." His voice rose to a high pitch squeak as he mimicked a female voice, " _Let her find love,_ she said. _Not all are as fortunate as we,_ she declared. Well I have had more than enough!"

Caroline felt her face pale and her palms begin to sweat, "Father what are you saying?" Out of the corner of her eye she could see Niklaus's shirt sleeve from where he was hiding and eavesdropping but she could not pay it any mind. Not with her Father's angry glare pinning her to the marble steps.

"I am saying that I am done with your snubbing and your scowling. I'm through with you turning your nose up and being down right rude to every suitor that parades themselves through my doors!" His chubby finger pointed and waved in her face. "You have shown no inkling of choosing a husband nor of settling down. Now you leave me no choice in the matter but to choose for you."

"Father please!"

"No! No more. I will no longer give into your whims. My decision is final." He shouted before turning to head back into the manor.

Caroline caught hold of his arm rushing to stop him from this path, "And if I had found someone to love? Someone worthy of my heart, would you reconsider?"

"If he was worthy of your heart and title? Of course. But it matters not. You have shown no interest in any of the suitors who have come to call and I handpicked those lads from the highest stock myself."

His attention was diverted to the butler waiting patiently at the door, nodding his head he turned back to his stunned daughter. Taking hold of her arm and wrapping it within his own he began guiding her back into their home. "Come now. I have important matters to handle along with now choosing the pick of the litter for your life partner."

He left her standing in the foyer as he walked to his study to meet one of his many business partners feeling as if she couldn't breathe.

Numbly Caroline wandered through her home, the only home she had ever known, her mind so caught up in the recent events she could not form a complete thought.

Xxx

Her Father had bid her goodbye and left just after the noonday meal claiming he would not return until the morrow. With a swift pat to her cheek and a softly murmured "Worry not all with be well." he was gone. Leaving Caroline to muddle through her thoughts with only the servants hiding in the shadows. They all left her be. With most having been in her family's employ since prior to her birth, they knew what a devastating turn of events this was for her.

She took advantage of being out of their prying eyes and weaved her way through her ancestral home. Smiling at memories here, running her fingertips over the shining trinkets there. Niklaus's words echoing in her mind when she would find one that had a slight coating of dust upon it.

" _You will be nothing more than a trinket, much like those that sit upon your shelves. Brought down only to be dusted before they are placed back again, long forgotten."_

Caroline began planning before she had fully realized what she was doing. Carefully and discreetly she gathered what she felt she would need and penned a message to be delivered.

A short while later, she pulled a young servant aside and in hushed tones spoke of all that she required of him. Now all that was left to do was wait while trying not to work herself up until the clock struck midnight.

Xxx

The manor had long sat silent as Niklaus crept cautiously through the home. His mind had been racing since receiving the letter from Josh that Caroline had written him. He had tried not to speculate on her simple words that requested his presence at the midnight hour as he went about his daily duties.

After overhearing her Father's newest demands, Niklaus could not help but be plagued with the worry that she would be sending him away. He did not know which would be worse; never laying eye upon her beautiful face again or being forced to look on from afar as she married and bore the children of another man.

Each carefully treaded step closer to her suite was met with a new and horrendous thought.

Which would be the greater hell? Seeing it all transpire right before his eyes? Or her sending him to some far-off place with only his memory to sooth him as he wondered how she would fare? Would the man her Father selected treat her as she so deserved? Or would that man do unto her as he had predicted earlier that day?

While his heart pounded loudly within his chest his feet had carried him silently to her door, reaching it before he felt ready to see what laid in store for him.

Laying his palm flat against the smooth wood he ran three circles over its front, a quick and quiet pat followed by three more circle. It had long been their secret knock.

The door was pulled open before his hand had even left the door's surface. Her anxious blue eyes and nervous face doing little to disquiet his trepidation.

Closing the door softly behind him he watched as her robe swirled around her ankles as she paced across the room with twisting her hands together.

Unable to stand the quiet any longer he stood tall, bracing himself for the blow that was sure to come, "Just say it Caroline."

She startled as if his presence shocked her out of her deep thoughts, "What?"

"Just say what you called me here to tell me." His throat bobbed as he swallowed past the traitorous lump that had formed before speaking shakily, "I can handle it."

"Did you mean it? What you said?" She blurted before licking her lips and starting again, "Do you truly love me and wish me to be your wife?"

"More than anything." His low voice sent shivers over her skin before his next words stunned her to her core. "Though I do not rightly see what that matters now."

One hand pressed lightly against her throat as the other flew down her body clutching her stomach. "I do not understand." She whispered with dread.

Niklaus waved a hand towards the chest and overstuffed satchel sitting next to her bed, "I assume you've gathered things to aid in my departure." He cursed the shaky sigh that left him as well as the tears gathering in his eyes, "You called me here to send me away, haven't you?"

"No, you blundering blockhead! Unless you have taken a fancy to wearing women's dresses and frills I do not see how these things shall aid you. I've gathered the items I will need to run away with you. As for the rest…"

His gray eyes widened in surprise before he strode over to her, grasping her shoulders gently as he interrupted her, "What are you saying Caroline? Are you sure? As I have told you before I…"

She placed her delicate finger upon his lips effectively silencing him with a tender smile, "All that matters is that I love you. I would go anywhere with you. I want to build a life with you Niklaus. I want to be known as yours just as I want the world to know you are mine."

A single tear leaked from the corner of his eye at her declaration, his emotion filled voice cracking, "That is all I have every wanted since first laying eyes upon you Caroline. But you do realize that my means are very little. It shall take me years to make us a stable home."

"You have forgotten about my dowry." She said knowingly with a cheekily smile. "I have gathered enough trinkets and odds and ends to help us get started. I might have also raided my Father's locked desk drawer and took a bag of gold coins."

"No Love." He began shaking his head vehemently, "I shall not be taking your money. Tis yours and not why I want to be with you."

"Then think of it as ours." She huffed in aggravation before rushing to continue as he made to argue, "I know that is not why you want to be with me Niklaus. Think of it as my contribution to our long and happy future."

He grimaced, "It will not be enough to keep you living in the style you are accustomed to. Even after I am able to secure employment."

"True." She offered with a half nod and a grin, "But that is not the life I envision for us."

Caroline stepped away from him to pick up the lone book she had sitting on top of her case, opening it to show him a small bundle of papers hidden inside.

"My Mother, worried over what would become of my life, left me this."

His eyes widened as he read all that the small packet contained. "Caroline." He breathed in amazement.

She giggled at his stunned expression, "My Mother held back on my Father. She had a small strip of land that was gifted to her from her Mother as well. It seems it has been a family tradition on her side; gifting this land to every female heir in case they ever had a need for escape."

She clapped her hands in glee, "Think of it Niklaus! We can build a horse breeding farm here. We can raise the best stallions of the land! With our mutual love of horses, we can build it together." She smiled as she watched the wheels turn in his mind, "And do not think I have forgotten your other dream my darling. There is a large wooded lot that belongs to this property as well. You will have all the wood you need to craft your furniture."

Furrowing his brows, he glanced to her, "But what of you Caroline? Your dreams to see the wonders of the world? Leaving your Father behind?"

Her eyes twinkled merrily as she shook her head with a grin, "Niklaus, when will you understand that my dreams of fancy were nothing but a girlish hope to live my life outside of the confines of my social confinements? _You_ Niklaus are the wonder of the world I spoke of. Living with and loving you is all I ever truly wanted."

The passion in her voice, the honesty blazing from her shimmering blue eyes drew him in as he wrapped an arm about her waist and pulled her close for a searing kiss.

He held her close after their lips parted, "And your father?"

Caroline shrugged her shoulders but caved under his worried stare. "Once we have established ourselves I will send a missive to him. It will be up to him to decide what he would like to do."

Niklaus gulped and voiced his greatest fear, "And if he chooses to disown you or tries to force you back here?"

"I will not claim either option would not hurt, but forcing me back?" She voiced shaking her head, "No courts, not even the Ton or the Queen herself would void our marriage when such a time comes to pass."

"I wish I had your confidence." Niklaus grumbled in shame over his lower-class and how it left him unable to provide for her as he would like.

"Hey." Caroline's soft voice and hand cradling his cheek drew his eyes back to her, "I care not for any titles other than being called your wife. It seems I shall have to have the confidence for the both of us until such a time as my words are proven true."

Niklaus felt his heart pound within his chest. Shyly he ran the backs of his fingers against the soft skin of her cheek. His hope pouring from his eyes as his voice floated reverently between them, "You truly wish to become my wife?"

Her lips lifted into a thrilled smile, "It would be my greatest pleasure and joy."

His smile was as blinding as hers as he replied, "As it would be mine. As well as my greatest honor to become your husband." Their eyes locked, both elated over the future they could see within the other. Niklaus shook his head as reality sank in, "We must make haste. When is your father due to return?"

"Not until after the morning meal. I have Joshua readying two horses and the cart as we speak."

"Sure of ourselves were we?" He teased.

Caroline giggled sweetly, "When it comes to us? Without a doubt. Now help me with these bags. You and Joshua will have to bring the larger one down. Just be sure to remain as silent as can be."

Within the hour, under the dark cloak of night they were gone. Traveling across the countryside under the guise of a newly wedded couple off to make their own path in the world.

Two days into their journey they were wed. For all the flare that a Lady of her station demanded of a wedding; theirs was small and quant. Viewed only by the preacher and his wife in a small church two towns over from the land her Mother secretly left her.

Caroline blushed heavily as the older woman tried her best to explain the upcoming night and what would come from the consummation of their vows. Having seen many a young couple flee the scriptures of life within the Ton the older woman offered them a boon that, while embarrassing, Caroline rushed to except in hopes that one day her Father would see the proof that they had not transgressed so far against him.

Niklaus and Caroline would spend their first night as a wedded couple in one of the small one roomed cabins the church offered for travelers. In the daylight hours, the preacher and his wife would bear witness to the marital bed and the proof of Caroline's virtue it would hold.

Shortly after the small intimate ceremony and a small repast with the older couple, Niklaus was escorted away while she was led to the small cabin so they could both ready themselves for the night to come.

Caroline stood by the stone fireplace, nervously fiddling with the ties of the nightdress that held the fabric closed at her neck. While they were accustomed to each other's bodies, they had never seen the other completely in the nude before. Their more promiscuous meetings had only just started a few weeks prior and all of their touching had been done fully clothed and was limited to hurried moments and clumsy fondling.

At the soft rap on the door Caroline cursed her quivering voice as she bade her husband to enter.

 _Husband._

The title alone would have been enough to calm her raging nerves. But the way his steely eyes swept slowly over her form, combined with the awed gasp that fell from his open lips, sent a delicious heat straight down to her core.

Giving him a sultry grin Caroline opened her arms welcoming him in as he shut the cabin door, "Husband."

A possessive light shone within his eyes as his husky voice replied, "Wife."

Dressed in a loose pair of britches he slowly stalked across the floor towards her causing his half-buttoned dress shirt to move showing off his smooth muscled chest.

Caroline nibbled on her lower lips as she felt her cheeks heat with the way his eyes moved over her thinly covered body and her long flowing hair. Niklaus stepped in closer to her, one hand shakily gripped her hip while the other slid across her cheek before his fingers ran admiringly through her long golden locks.

She felt shivers dance over her skin at his gentle touch and the heat from his hand placed at her hip bringing a nervous gasp from her lips.

"We do not have to do this now Caroline. We can wait until you are feel ready." His deep voice eased her nerves slightly.

"But the proof of…"

"Damned the proof." He declared firmly. "This should only be about you and I. Not some evidence for us to leave behind for your Father. If you are not ready…"

"But I am!" She squeaked loudly before clearing her throat and hesitantly let her fingers trail over the skin showing through his shirt of his chest. "I am ready. I supposed I am just, you'll think me strange," She puffed a laugh, "but I am just a smidgen nervous."

Niklaus chuckled softly, "You think I am not?"

Her wide blue eyes glanced up to him with innocent surprise, "You are?"

"Aye." He answered with a half-grin, "But what was it we vowed just a few short hours ago?"

Caroline's eyes twinkled as a lazy grin lit her lips, "That we would face the world together. That we would share in all our adventures as one."

"And if this _adventure_ is one you are not quite ready for then we shall postpone the journey." Niklaus uttered softly as his heart pounded in his chest. As nervous as he was about taking this step with her for the first time, he was just as equally excited to do so.

Caroline's tongue peeked out to swipe over her luscious lips, her fingers still drawing circle on his chest as her other hand slid up to cup the side of his neck. "Kiss me Niklaus."

Slowly he lowered his head, pressing his lips to her soft waiting ones as he drew her body in closer. Tentatively he brushed the tip of his tongue over the crease of her mouth, groaning deeply as she opened for him.

The wet heat of his tongue tangling with hers brought a moan of pleasure from her. Her hands slid around his neck pulling him down closer as she walked them backwards to the bed. When she felt the mattress hit the back of her knees she stopped and pulled her mouth from his.

The two newly wedded lovers stared deeply into each other's rapidly heating eyes, their panting breaths ghosting over the other's face. Caroline hesitantly pulled his shirt from his britches and with trembling fingers she clumsily undid the remaining buttons. Her eyes followed the movements of her hands as she glided her palms up his chest and over his shoulders, brushing the shirt down his arms.

She couldn't contain the awed gasp at the sight before her. His upper body was all smooth skin and lean muscles that he had gained from his work on her Father's estate. A small part of her felt she had deprived herself of seeing such a sight but their wait had been worth it; for it had made this moment all the more special to her inside her heart.

Caroline marveled at the heat of his skin even as her fingertips brought on goosebumps as she slowly touched every inch of his uncovered skin she could reach.

For his part Niklaus felt as if he was in Heaven. The way just the simple touch of her fingers made his body feel alive and the way her eyes darkened as she looked him over, it felt as if lightening was coursing through his veins. The thought arose that if it felt that way now, how would what was to come feel? As her fingers brushed against the ties of his britches and she sucked her lower lip into her mouth, he quickly stayed her hand.

Caroline glanced into his eyes quickly, "What is the matter? Why did you stop me?"

Niklaus let out a puff of air, not wanting to tell her if she continued this exploratory path she was on, it would be over far too quickly. Instead he huskily requested, "Let me see you as well my Love."

The vivid blush that stole over her cheeks continued down her neck making him wonder just how far beneath her nightdress it traveled. Regrettably her hands left his body to fall to her sides, but his remorse was shortly lived at her nod of approval.

Steadying his own riotous emotions, his trembling fingers gently pulled at the bow's ends at her neck. His heart beat a frantic tune in his chest as each new inch of her heaving chest and shoulders were revealed to his eyes. Just as tenderly as she, he carefully brushed the fabric over and down her shoulders, sending the nightdress to the floor with a soft wisp.

His breath caught in his throat at the sight of her standing bare before him. Her slender neck curved down to her full breast with their tight pink peaks. He happily discovered that her blush went all the way down to the tops of her beautiful breast.

"Beautiful." He uttered unknowingly as his eyes continued their journey over her stunning body. Her narrow waist and slightly flared hips made his fingers flinch with the need to touch her. The dark triangle of curls covering her delicious center had him licking his lips as he recalled the taste of her. Seeing her lean legs, naked all the way down to her dainty toes had his mind filling with images of them being wrapped around his waist.

The way he all but devoured her with his lust filled gray eyes had Caroline rubbing her thighs together as she recalled the other ways he had devoured her prior to this moment. Her breath caught as she wondered; if those things had felt so wondrous, what would feeling all of him do to her?

"Niklaus."

Her husky whine of his name drew him out of his lustful haze. Finding similar thoughts within her eyes he lunged towards her. Her hands instantly went to his hair, his gripping her hips and pulling her against him. The feel of the skin of their upper bodies meeting for the first time sent equal gasps and groans into the other's mouth before their lips danced in a heated kiss.

When Niklaus felt the heat of her press against his ridged member he felt grateful that he had had the mind to stop her before she had removed his britches. He would have lost himself in her the moment their lower halves would have touched otherwise. With the feel of her breasts and their hardened peaks rasping against his chest, his mind thankfully took over and reminded him of what he had overheard some men boost of over the years. One of them had come to mind before he had even walked in the door.

 _Be sure to take care of yourself before your first time Laddie, if there be a chance to. Otherwise it will be over before you even start._

His hand curved in-between their bodies, cupping and tweaking her nipple just as her hands rounded and gripped his backside, making him thankful that he did indeed have the chance.

Caroline's head fell back breaking their kiss as the way he fondled her breast sent sparks of pleasure through her body. Niklaus trailed his lips over the curve of her jawline, her hand threading through his hair as he lavished her neck with his lips and tongue.

 _A Lady's first time need not be too painful for her, if'n you get her ready enough and you know what you be doing._

His meager experiences with her had taught him well what she liked. He wound his arm around her lower back, slowly tipping her body down to lay her across the bed. His calloused palm slid up her side, cupping her breast as his lips trailed a hot path downward. The first flick of his tongue over her hardened peak had her gasping. The second pulled a moan from her. The third was followed by his warm lips wrapping around it and sucking causing her back to arch off the bed with a keening cry.

Caroline's mind whirled with desire and pleasure as his lips lavished her breasts. The way he all but worshiped her as he kissed and laved his tongue over her flesh made her feel as if she was a goddess of old.

She felt his lean body slide further down, her breath hitching as he fit his shoulders between her thighs. His tongue and lips softly brushed a path over her lower abdomen, trailing lower still as his nose nuzzled into her soft bed of curls.

Her body tensed as she panted at the feeling of his scruff scratching the soft skin of her inner thighs. At the slow glide of his hand up her leg spreading her wider, she glanced down to see only his lustful eyes blaring up at her right before his hot tongue flattened in a long swipe over her wet core.

Her body thrashed at the way he feasted on her. His hands racing to hold her hips down as his tongue chased her succulent core. Her first climax of the evening had just rushed over her when she felt his fingers probing at her entrance.

With one hand gripping the sheets at her side the other fled down her body to grip his curly locks just as he pressed his finger inside, curling it against her inner walls. Her thighs trembled, her grip on his hair and finger tightened bringing a low rumbling growl from his lips that vibrated against her core sending her quickly over the edge once more. A keening moan of his name bursting from her throat.

Her heart hammered within her chest, her body still quivering from her climaxes, as she felt him leave the bed. Caught up in her blissful daze her mind barely registered his movement or the sounds of the fabric of his pants hitting the floor.

Within seconds the bed dipped as he rejoined her on the bed. His warm trembling body covered hers, nudging her legs open with his knee to fit his body between the cradle of her thighs.

Caroline's hand held the side of his neck as the other pressed into his lower back. Both groaning as the pressure drew his hips closer, his shaft brushing against her dripping folds.

Niklaus leaned his body on an elbow, one hand cradling her face as the other slid down, hitching her thigh over his hip. He wanted to ask if she was sure, if she was ready but his throat would not allow words to form. Thankfully her eyes and soft smile told him all he needed to know. Adjusting his hips, lining his ridged manhood up to her quivering folds. Their mouths hung open with bated breath as he pushed in the first inch, gently rolling his hips to sink in further.

At the first wince of pain on her face he lowered his head, whispering, "I love you Caroline." Catching her response within the cavern of his mouth as he tenderly kissed her swollen lips and seated his shaft to the hilt feeling her silky warm walls contract around him.

His body shook with the effort it took to hold still, wanting nothing more than to thrust his hips and rut against her but needing to give her a moment to adjust.

Caroline slowed their kiss, resting her lips against his scruffy cheek as she attempted to catch her breath and adjust to the foreign feeling of his manhood deep within her. For all the warnings she had heard of the pain she would feel during her first time, it had turned out to be nothing more than a mild discomfort. Whether that had to do with their love for each other or how he had lovingly prepared her, she had not a clue.

Experimentally, she rolled her hips feeling his shaft leave her just a fraction before sinking back in. Her breath came out as a soft moan as his head fell to her shoulder with a masculine groan. She arched her hips up once again, this time pressing on his lower back. It must have been what he was waiting for, for in the next moment he had her leg hitched higher over his side as he slowly pulled his hips back before thrusting gently back into her.

They clumsily found their rhythm. Hips rolling and thrusting, hands skating and sliding over each other's sweat covered skin. Caroline's nails dug into his back and shoulder when he hit a particular spot within her, dragging a cry of pleasure from her lips. Niklaus must have noticed her reaction, soon after he focused his thrusting hips on that area over and over again. Feeling her walls quiver and tighten as her core heated around his torrid length had him groaning deeply, gripping her thigh tightly as he felt his orgasm sneaking closer.

Caroline's head thrashed on the pillow, she could feel the end coming ever closer but hanging just out of reach. That was until he gripped her thigh, pulling her hips closer still, his pelvis hitting her swollen nub with every thrust causing her body to stiffen as her climax crashed over her. Her hoarse voice cracked as she shouted his name and feeling her walls clamp down on his shaft was the final trigger needed. He roared her name, his body trembling as his seed spilled within her quivering depths.

Niklaus collapsed facedown beside her, his arm pulling her in and securing her shaking body against his. Nothing but heaving pants were heard echoing throughout the room as the fought to control their pounding hearts.

Sluggishly Niklaus turned onto his side, tenderly brushing the sweat matted hair off her face. They smiled lazily at each other with flushed cheeks before Caroline giggled happily bring forth an elated chuckle from his chest.

He pulled her body with him as he rolled onto his back, her head fitting perfectly within the nook of his neck and shoulder as if it was always meant to rest there. Lifting her chin with his knuckle he brushed a few soft tender kisses to her lips, sighing as her tongue swept slowly through his mouth.

Her eyes sparkled with all her joyous emotions as she ran her fingers over his jaw, "I love you Niklaus. Always and forever."

"As I you my darling. Always and forever."

They settled down for rest, her fingers brushing slow soft circles over his chest as his trailed up and down the smooth skin of her cooling back. Both smiled as they fell into a blissful slumber, thinking over all they had gone through to get here and all that was yet to come. But both knowing that when it came to matters of the heart, they were exactly where they both belonged.

Xxx

 _Six years Later._

Caroline stepped out onto the covered wooden porch of the modest stone cabin wiping her hands upon her apron.

"May I ring the bell Mama?"

Caroline smiled happily at her nearly five-year-old son. "Of course, you may Henrik." She shook her head at the loud whoop he shouted, surely that was enough to call his Papa in for lunch.

Even with the decent state they had found the land's stone cabin to be in, it had taken them nearly two years to fix the homestead up. Discovering she was pregnant so soon after their wedding had come as a pleasant surprise. And even though Niklaus had fretted over her constantly, her stubbornness along with the assurance from the towns midwife had seen her helping right up until the end of her pregnancy.

They had their bumps and trials along the way. The horse farm did not take as they had hoped; leaving the vast land open for raising livestock as well as farming the foods for their own root cellar as well as to sell or barter with among the locals.

It was Niklaus's woodworking that seen them through. His talent in crafting marvelous pieces out of nothing was something that always left her gasping in awe. His intricate designs both with wood and paints had customers flocking to him to place special orders.

He was making a name for himself and Caroline, outside of her own pride in him, knew just what that meant to him. Business had become so well that he had even taken two apprentices underneath his charge. Something unheard of for one as young as he.

Caroline beamed brightly as Niklaus appeared from around the corner of their home dusting wood shavings off his work clothes.

Henrik dashed off the porch, "Papa! Papa! Mama let me ring the bell did you hear?!"

Niklaus chuckled as he ruffled his son's curly blonde hair, "Aye my boy. And a mighty fine bell ringing it was. Have you been a good lad at helping your Mother?"

Henrik grinned a toothy smile, his face shining with pride as he nodded his head vigorously. "Uh huh. I set the table and everything."

Niklaus gave his son a pat on his back as they stepped onto the porch. Upon seeing his wife he smiled lovingly, "How are you faring today Sweetheart?"

"A little tired," she answered honestly. "But all is well."

Niklaus laid his hand gently to her rounded stomach, "And this wee one? How is she?"

Caroline rolled her eyes at his presumption at the baby's gender, "Dancing a jig as always." She answered bringing a chuckle from her husband.

The small family gathered within their home eating their noonday meal as Henrik regaled them with tales of his latest adventures with his friends.

The sound of horse hoofs and carriage wheels off in the distance could be heard coming up the dirt lane.

Niklaus wiped his face on his napkin before placing it on the table. Standing he bent down brushing a kiss to his wife's cheek, "That would be Thomas with supplies." Glancing at his son when he made to rise he held his hand out, "Finish your meal and help your Mother."

Henrik groaned as he slumped back into his chair bringing a smile to his parents faces.

"I have a hankering for an afternoon nap." Caroline shared a conspiring grin with her husband, "Perhaps your Papa could use your help in the woodshop."

Niklaus chuckled at his son's large begging blue eyes. With a contemplative demeanor, he rasped his hand over his scruff covered chin, "I suppose I could use an extra set of hands." He smiled as his son's face lit up, "Only after you finish your food and assist your Mother to bed."

Caroline scoffed, "Hey! Who is the adult and who is the child here?"

"For a brief time yet my lovely wife, you are a bit of both." Niklaus laughed as he dodged the napkin she swung his way.

Henrik hid his giggles behind his hand at his mother's pout, "You will catch bird droppings with that lip Mama."

Niklaus doubled over in laughter while Caroline looked at Henrik is shock, "Pardon me?"

Henrik looked between his parents in confusion, "Is that not what you tell me when I pout my lip out?"

"He has you there sweetheart." Niklaus chuckled with a smirk.

"Now I do hope this one's a girl." Caroline huffed as she rubbed her protruding stomach, "I am far too outnumbered as it is."

Niklaus chuckled as he walked towards the front door, "You love us none the less."

Caroline's retort died on her lips at her husband's ridged stance after he opened the door. "Niklaus? What is it?"

He turned his head to face her, swiping his tongue anxiously over his lip, "Henrik, how about you head out back and see if Liam needs any assistance."

Ignorant of his parent's strange mood Henrik did not think twice before wiping his face off and running towards the back door with an excited whoop.

Caroline waited until her son had left before standing carefully from her chair and made her way over to stand next to her husband in the doorway. There in front of their home sat a carriage with a crest emblazoned on its side that she had not seen for nearly six years.

Linking her arm through her husband's they cautiously walked out onto the porch just as Joshua opened the carriage door. Shinning booted feet were the first thing she seen of her Father before he emerged and walked down the carriage steps.

The group stood eyeing each other speculatively before her Father's large frame sagged as he sighed with his arms spread wide, "Is that any way to greet your Father after so much time has passed?"

Niklaus held tightly to his wife as she made to run towards her Father. The older man sent a glare his way thinking the man meant to keep her from him before watching as Niklaus carefully guided his daughter down the steps of the porch.

His blue eyes widened comically as he noticed for the first time his daughter's protruding stomach heavy with child. "I see much has changed in the past six years." He croaked.

"We are properly wed Father I promise you." Caroline rushed to defend.

Her Father raised a hand to stop her, "Aye I am aware. I have been in fact for the past six years." At their confused looks he shook his head, "You two did not really think I would not try to find you now did you? Within a few days' time after your leaving I came across the small church a few towns over and the lovely couple that attested, rather bluntly I might add, to the legality of your marriage. After quite a bit of heated words were exchanged and not knowing where you ran off to, I went back home."

Caroline and Niklaus had enough decency to glance to the ground sheepishly.

"Of course, at the time it is probably best I was not aware of just how close you were. With the state I was in I would have drug you back home kicking and screaming and set this matter before the Ton." The Viscount said straightforwardly.

Caroline swallowed harshly, "And now Father?"

"And now," He sighed heavily, "I have had many a years to think things over. And after receiving your husband's missive and giving his holdings a deeper inquiry I find…" He trailed off before grinning, "I would quite like a drink after such a long ride and perhaps some time to catch up."

Caroline bit her lip to hold back her smile, "Take a seat on the porch while I gather some cool mead." She shot a glare at her husband before walking away.

Niklaus quickly offered a grimace to his father in law, "I suppose I should help her. Please excuse me my Lord."

"William." He waved off his son-in-law's bow, "With all that has come to pass, I give you leave to call me William."

"Thank you, William." He added hastily before scrambling after his wife.

William chuckled, hearing his daughter demanding to know why her husband had sent off the letter without her knowledge, as he inspected the well-crafted chairs on the porch. His son-in-law's reply gave him pause as it caught him off guard.

"You missed him Caroline. But I knew you were too frightened that he would not respond so I took matters into my own hands."

"Still, you should have told me."

"And have you staring at the road every hour of every day wondering if he would show? Not bloody likely."

William missed whatever else was said as a small blonde haired boy walked up beside him.

"Hello Sir. Are you here to purchase some of my Papa's furniture? He really does make the best furniture in the whole lands. My Mama does some of the sewing. She does a pretty job. Though she does say naughty words when she pricks her fingers." His blue eyes the same shade of Caroline's rounded as did his mouth, "You will not tell my Mama I told you, will you?"

William slowly eased into one of the chairs, his eyes taking in the cherub face of the lad. Even with Caroline's eyes and her penchants for rambling, if you added a few more years to the boy he would be the spitting image of Niklaus when he had first come to work on his property.

William had always liked the boy and had felt pity that his own Father had sold him off to pay off his debts. Niklaus had been a fine and hard worker and, to be honest with only himself, there had been plenty of times as he watched Niklaus and his daughter play and interact that he wished he could form a match between the two. He had often thought what a perfect match they would make, both in life and love. But as a daughter of a Viscount she had obligations and such thoughts of fancy had to be shut down.

William had known of their fancy with each other, but he had no idea that it ran that deep and that his demands of her would cause her to run off. He had regretted it deeply the moment he had left that day. He had full intentions of returning home and making things right again. Only he arrived to discover the manor in an uproar. Mary was weeping, Joshua was ringing his hat in guilt while Niklaus and Caroline and their things had vanished into the night. Upon discovering the church, and that blasted woman's rantings of virtue and honor, he had taken solace in the fact that Niklaus had done right by his little girl and trusted that he would look after her.

That did not mean just because he had taken a liking to Niklaus that he had not wanted to see him drawn and quartered when he discovered they had ran off and wed. As he had told Caroline, it was a mighty fine thing that he did not know of their whereabouts at the time.

Truth be told he had known where they were now for almost a year. The boy, well the man now, had begun to make quite the name for himself among the Ton with all the Ladies in a tizzy over this one's high back chair and that one's armoire. But it wasn't until a month ago when Niklaus's letter sat upon his desk, fear eating at him with what the missive would contain; had his daughter fell ill and passed? Was she hurt? That he knew whether he was welcome to their home or not.

His attention was drawn back to the young lad that fidgeted before him. Leaning forward with a conspiring whisper and a wink, "Your secrets are safe with me my boy."

The young lad beamed a toothy grin just as his parents walked back onto the porch.

Caroline narrowed her eyes at her Father as Niklaus offered William and Joshua their drinks, "Conspiring already are we?"

"No Mama." Henrik said as he rocked on his heels, "I was just telling this man about Papa's furniture."

Caroline pressed her lips, knowing something had happened but chose to let it pass as the happiness of seeing her Father and her son together was overwhelming.

"I would like to introduce you someone Henrik." Caroline told her son as she placed a hand to his shoulder. "My Father has come to visit us."

His eyes rounded excitedly, "Where is he Mama?"

The adults chuckled and William leaned closer, "I am right here Henrik."

"You are my Grandfather?" Henrik's eyes rounded innocently. At William's wide smile and nod Henrik launched himself into his arms shouting, "I have a Grandfather! Mama, Papa look! Now I can tell the other boys they are not the only ones with Grandfathers."

The group indulged Henrik and his million questions. Caroline and Niklaus watched as William told him story after story and promised to head into town tomorrow to meet his group of friends.

Niklaus glanced at Caroline from his spot next to her on the bench as she stretched her back yet again and smothered a yawn behind her hand.

"Are you well Love?" He whispered in her ear.

"Yes. Just a little sore from sitting so long and tired." She replied quietly.

Not missing the exchange William spoke up, "Now, how about we let Caroline rest and you show me around this shop of yours that has all the old buzzards worked up in such a raucous?"

"Father! Please. You will set a horrible influence on Henrik." Caroline reprimanded him.

Thankfully Henrik was too excited to pay much attention as he was near bursting at the seams to run off and tell his friends all about his new Grandfather.

It did not take long for Caroline to fall asleep after Niklaus helped her to bed and sent Henrik on his way. Afterwards Niklaus showed his Father in law around his woodworking shop, anxiously waiting for what the man would say. Niklaus had always been grateful to the man and respected his option, he could only hope that in light of all that had transpired things would not go sour.

"You have done very well for yourself and your family Niklaus. I do hope you feel a profound sense of pride in yourself as I do for you." William declared with a clap on his back after a tour around the shop.

William grinned happily at the pride and relief that rolled off Niklaus as he nodded, "Thank you my Lord."

"None of those titles now Niklaus. We are equals now." William scoffed as he fumbled in his overcoat pockets withdrawing a packet of papers.

"What do you mean?"

"You married a Viscount's daughter, born a commoner or not, that elevates you to a higher social ranking." William explained.

"I did not marry her for her title or holdings. I..."

William waved him off, "You have no need to defend yourself or to reassure me. I know quite well that you married her for love and not her wealth."

"How can you be so sure? Why are you not…"

"Raging like a bull?" The two men shared a chuckle, "Six years ago while the wounds were still fresh I would have likely spoken differently."

"And now?" Niklaus asked with a gulp."

"Now?" William laughed as he spread his arms out wide, "Look around you my boy! Look at all you have built, all that you have acquired. Lands, financial and social standings. You did that all on your own."

Glanced down sheepishly Niklaus admitted, "Mainly on the back of what Caroline brought to the marriage. I had very little to offer her in the start."

"Oh poppycock." William huffed. "You did more with what could be considered her dowry than any of those, what did she fancy calling them? Popinjays? Would have ever done with it. Besides, you gave her what I have always wanted for her, what her Mother wanted for her. Happiness and love. As a Father yourself, you cannot claim to truly want more for your children. You would be so luck, should the babe in her now be a girl, to find a man much like yourself as a son-in-law."

Both men cleared their throats gruffly, "Now enough of this feminine chatter. Here," William handed him a stack of papers, "These are the accounts and records of your title and holdings. Letterheads with the proper addresses upon them so your business will be more lucrative. A draft of my will and testament. Though with the added heirs' I was not made aware, of those will be changed shortly to include them by name."

Niklaus swiped his tongue nervously over his lips as he skimmed through the papers. Glancing up at his father in law with a squinted eye, "I think it might be best if we hold off on telling Caroline of such things."

William hummed thoughtfully, "I think you might be correct on that matter Niklaus." Clasping an arm over his shoulder, "Now, show me around this house of yours. Does it happen to have a spare room for on old man such as myself?"

Niklaus grinned as the two walked back towards the house, Henrik could be seen running over the grassy hill towards the house and the sounds of Caroline making dinner within the kitchen filtered through the air to their ears, "Thinking of staying for a while?"

"Aye. I missed the birth of my first grandchild. I do not plan to miss the next."

"We have plenty of room to spare, we made certain of that form the very start. Caroline and I would be honored to have you stay for as long as you wish." Niklaus smiled, knowing just what this new development would mean to his wife.

As the larger group pulled in chairs to accommodate their growing numbers around the dining table, all could be caught having a brief moment of silent reflection on how full their hearts felt once more. With all the laughter and the many years missing, there was not much time for quiet as the stone cabin rang with laughter and infectious joy of a family made whole.

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Yes, no, maybe so? Let me know. Thank you all so much!


	28. Warrior's Welcome

**Warrior's Welcome. AH/AU. NSFW**

This was written for the Klaroline Arbor Day Event on Tumblr. So be aware that this is a NSFW event involving trees!

Klaus is a Viking Warrior. Set in the 900's ish. All human and established/married Klaroline.

I own nothing but what my mind dreams up! Enjoy!

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Niklaus or known to others as, Klaus the Hybrid, sat in the small tavern as his men drank and boasted of their victory. He was called such for his warring opposite sides, the soft-hearted man who showered his family with love and affection and the demonic warrior whose fiery rage and fierce steel blade would tirelessly slice and fell all that stood within his path. It was said that the screams of his foes would ring through the battlefield long after he had cut his way through.

He had always chuckled within the taverns upon over hearing such tales of his feats. Just like in this very moment as a group of nearby men gloated of their leaders might and cunning abilities. His breath suddenly burst from his lips as a busty barmaid plopped her generous rump upon his lap.

Her spindly fingers curled into his long curly mane, eyeing him seductively completely missing the irritated glare he aimed her way. "So, a big strong warrior like you should enjoy the spoils of his battles. Consider me said spoils."

"You know quite well I have a wife. I only live in a half days' ride from here." He attempted to extract her from his person only to have her grip him tighter.

"She has no need to know sweet-cheeks, so how about you take a ride on me instead of your horse?" She wriggled her generous rump in his lap looking at him with disappointed eyes and a sympathetic smile when she found him to be as soft as unbaked bread, "Oh don't you be worrying over that. I can take care of that for ye in a jiffy."

Klaus's eyes rounded first in shock and then in anger as her hand slithered between them take hold of his flaccid member. He promptly stood, unceremoniously dumping her to the floor as he no longer caring if he harmed her. His blade was quickly unsheathed and pointed dangerously at her neck, "You do not touch what does not belong to you."

Huffing she snarled back in an effort to hide her discomfort and fear, "You be that frightened of your own wife?"

He grinned maliciously as he moved the blade's sharp end to her wrist, drawn a bead of blood, "Nay. I fear her not but I honor her well and true. So the next time you or any of these other barmaids decide to tempt fate let it be remembered that whichever digit touches me shall be promptly removed."

Elijah's hand appeared on his arm holding the blade, "Calm yourself brother. She did not know."

Klaus turned his head as he snarled in anger placing his blade back in its sheath, "She knew well enough I am married yet descended upon me like a common trollop."

"Most men would be honored at my company." The barmaid huffed from the dusty floor.

"I am not most men. I love my wife. She is all that my heart and loins will ever crave or need. Or were you fooled by my flaccid shaft?" He chuckled harshly as the barmaid huffed and flounced away.

"Must you always be so crude Niklaus?" Elijah scolded.

Throwing his arms out wide with a dimpled smile Klaus announced, "I am what I am brother. Now, if you will excuse me, the sun is high in the sky which leaves me just enough time to return home before dusk."

"The men are weary brother after such an intense battle. It would better serve them if they were given the day and night for rest before heading back to our home on the marrow."

"Let him be Elijah." One of the drunken warriors chortled from close by, "If I had a love such as he, I would be sitting upon my horse's back and not on this wooden chair surrounded by this lot!" The man was quickly distracted by a lust barmaid swinging her hips as she passed by.

"See dear brother? Even the men agree!" Klaus sauntered backwards towards the tavern doors, "I shall see you all tomorrow my fellow warriors!" He shouted over the din of the establishment, "I am off to see my lovely bride after suffering far too long from the lack of her presence."

XXX

The sun was an hour away from dipping below the horizon as Caroline strolled through the thinning forest behind the cottage she shared with her husband. The berries she had just harvested were nestled with the basket she held within the crook of her arm. With her husband returning home any day now she made it a point to pick the berries at the end of each day, knowing how much he enjoyed them.

The hard dirt path gave way to the thick springy moss covered trail, a giddy smile lighting her lips as she paused to remove her shoes. Securing them within her apron, using it as a makeshift satchel, she tied them to her basket before hopping off the tree stump onto the moss.

Her head fell back with a delighted groan at the feel of the cool soft moss as she wiggled her toes into it. Her mind drifted, as it always did at the first touch of the cushiony plant under her aching feet, wishing there could be a way to cover the hard-wooden floors of their home with something as wonderful as this.

The sudden sound of horse hoofs thudding against the ground pulled her from her reverie. Her hand went to the sharpened blade her husband had gifted to her on their wedding day. The one she had promised to always carry upon her person. Even as she prepared for a possible scoundrel whom would mean her nothing but harm, her heart pounded in excitement as her ears picked up the familiar whinny of the horse.

The sunlight glittered through the trees as the magnificent black stallion barreled down the mossy path towards her. And there sitting proudly upon his back, with a smile so wide she could see it clearly though they were still yards away, was her husband.

Tears of joy filled her eyes as the basket tumbled to the ground, her trembling hands covering her mouth as the horse and rider came to a halt before her. A relieved and happy whisper breathing from her lips, "Niklaus."

Klaus vaulted from the horse and within an instant had his beautiful wife in his arms, his lips crashing against hers as he spun them in a circle. Caroline's fingers grasped tightly into his hair, as her lips and tongue dueled with his in a mighty battle of love.

Coming to a stop Klaus slowly lowered her back to her feet, his dimples shining alongside his elated smile. With her fingers still burrowed within his hair, he brushed the backs of his fingers across her flushed cheek. Reverently whispering, "Caroline."

Her shimmering eyes scanned the parts of his body she could see bringing an amused chuckled from his chest, "I am well My Love I swear it." At her pressed lips, he playfully rolled his eyes before landing back on her lovely face as his grayish-blue eyes grew a shade darker, "Though, if you would care to make a closer inspection of my person, I shall not protest."

Caroline lightly shoved his shoulder with a scoff, "You should count yourself lucky I have missed you far too much to scold you for your roguish ways."

Klaus smirked smugly, his arm tightening around her lower back, yanking her soft luscious body into his lean hard form as he walked her backwards until her back was met with a tree. "Missed me sorely did you My Love?"

Caroline tilted her head sweetly to the side, twirling a lock of his hair around her finger as she pressed her breast further into his chest. A smirk of her own grew as his eyes fluttered shut with a groan, "I see no cause to deny it." Leaning up on her tip toes she swiped her tongue over the cord of his neck. Her warm breath bringing shivers to him as she uttered, "Did you miss me My Love?"

"Grievously my beautiful Love." He swore beneath his breath as she rolled her hips against his rapidly swelling shaft while nipping her teeth at the skin of his neck.

"You were gone for far too long Niklaus. How ever did you manage without seeking out your pleasure?" She asked coyly as she continued moving her lips and teeth over his exposed skin while beginning to remove his outer layer of clothing.

Klaus pushed his hands between their bodies, feeling her chest begin to heave as he slowly began unlacing the ties at the front of her dress. "Oh, I found the time my lustful wife." He pulled back slightly to watch in avid interest as his war roughened hands parted the top of her dress to reveal her creamy pump breast to his gaze. The rosy pointed tips, begging for his attention, had his mouth watering. Grasping her right leg behind her knee, hitching it over his hip, his fingers began trailing a path towards her honeyed center.

"I would wait until the men had fallen asleep around the fire before escaping to the stream when the shear need for you would become too much." Klaus licked his lips at the picture she made before his very eyes. Her lovely breasts left open to the air for him to see, her cheeks flushed in arousal, her lips trembling and her hips undulating more and more the closer his fingers inched to her core. "I would take my hardened shaft into my palm, thinking of nothing but the pleasures we have shared as I spilled my seed to the forest floor."

Her breath hitched at the picture he painted in her mind's eye. If the villagers or their families knew of the sinful things she thought of and enjoyed they would surely shun her. His fingers reached her patch of curls that hid her aching folds from his touch just as he leaned in close, his scruff scratching deliciously against the soft skin of her cheek as he huskily asked, "And how did you fare without my touch Caroline?"

Without waiting for a response, he plunged two fingers into her soaking core, both having to pause for a moment at the erotic feeling. Caroline moaned as he slowly withdrew his fingers only to plunge back into her silky depths, hooking his fingers to rub her inner walls with each pass.

Blindly Caroline found the ends of his tunic, pulling it open sharply before pressing her naked breasts to his skin. The heat of his skin, the rasp of her nipples brought on by the thrusts of his fingers deep within her had her careening over the egde with a desperate cry of his name.

But Klaus was nowhere near done. He greedily prolonged her high, swirling his thumb over her swollen nub as he continued crooking his fingers inside of her. He bent down slightly, taking her pleading nipple into his watering mouth pulling yet another keening cry from her lovely lips as she found her pleasure yet again.

Caroline frantically grasped at any part of him she could reach, his tunic falling to the ground in her lustful heat. She knew she was leaving welts upon his back due to the pressure of her nails but she could not find the will to care. Not with how much more pleasurable his hands felt than her own.

Her eyes popped open wide, her mouth falling with a silent shocked cry as he nibbled lightly on her nipple sending her spiraling over the edge for the third time.

She gasped in awe as his glorious and welcomed assault did not stop there. His hand wetly smacking against her inner thighs, his growling mouth still suckling at her breast like a starved man. Not quite sure how much more she would be able to take, wanting to have him yet again this night upon their bed and not the tree she was currently pressed firmly against. She slid her hand between them, ripping the tie of his pants open, feeling his hot, heavy shaft fall into her waiting palm.

As she pumped him softly within her palm his movements faltered, his head falling to her breast with a muttered curse and her name.

Klaus raised his head, looking at her wildly through desirous eyes. Knocking her hand away he quickly shucked his pants, hiking up the skirt of her dress as he picked her up with her legs wrapping tightly around his waist. His lips crashed to hers right as his ridged shaft plunged into her soaking core.

Their groans and cries of pleasure echoed through the trees. The bark bit into her back harshly but Caroline could not find the will to care when he was burying himself into her repeatedly.

Their bodies trembled and shook, their voices cracking as Caroline's walls gripped him tightly, her most intense climax yet washing over her. Her scream of his name cracked as his hoarse shout of hers signaled his overwhelming release.

His shaft still twitched deep inside her as Klaus let her legs fall numbly to the ground. His strong shaking arms caging her in to help to aid them both in staying standing.

Staring in each other's eyes they smile breathlessly, "Welcome home Niklaus. I love you."

His dimples cut into his cheeks as he replied, "As I you my lovely Caroline." He tested his weight on his legs only to find them still wobbly, "Let us catch our breath before we head off towards home." His devilish smirk telling her more than his words ever could at what was in-store this evening, "And then the true warrior's welcome can begin."

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So that happened! Happy Arbor Day! Plant a tree…so Klaus and Caroline can um…knock it down. LOL.

 **Personal Note:**

I took a lovely me-cation last week. I was able to go about my days at my own pace, and that was just heavenly! As most of you seen I was able to get the first chapter of Above It All done and posted at that time and I also wrote this little gem. I came back home feeling more connected with myself than I have in a very long time. I highly recommend taking a couple day me-cation! I plan to make this a yearly event. Just me and my computer as I write and just move at my own pace. I have spent the past week with my hubby and kiddos. Doing some work around the house and just having a blast with them. It's been a very refreshing two weeks after so many stresses and ups and downs lately. I plan to get back on track with writing again next week! So look for updates here as well as with AIA and The Girl! Thank you all again so much for reading and reviewing. I promise to get to answering your reviews back ASAP!


	29. Friends In Odd Places

Klaroline MashUp Event. Day One: Sentence prompt: "Are you taking his side against me?"

 _Friends In Odd Places._

 _Caroline age 13. Klaus age 18. AU/AH (Starts with a young friendship and then meeting later in life.)_

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Klaus grunted as he pulled on his tie uncomfortably. This was supposed to be a casual business lunch with a relaxed atmosphere. Though in his older brother Elijah's opinion the term _relaxed_ simply meant forgoing the standard suit coat and replacing it with a sports jacket.

 _One must still adhere to a proper professional personal Niklaus._

He could hear his brother's words echoing inside his mind. He didn't know why he needed to be here for this meeting in the first place. It was only a chance for their father and Mr. Lockwood to drink and speak of golf or other such nonsense. All the while his two older brothers would sit dutifully beside them while he sat bored out of his mind gaining nothing but scathing glares from his Father.

The sweltering heat of the small southern town in America was once again making Klaus wish he could have stayed back in London with his Mother and three younger siblings. Instead he was stuck here under the strict thumb of his Father in attempts to force him into learning the family business.

Having graduated and freshly turned eighteen, interning at Mikaelson Enterprises while going to business school was not on his personal radar. As sweat dripped down his back, his mind drifted to the acceptance letter from a very prestigious fine art university that was hidden beneath his mattress back home.

Klaus sighed as he caught the sight of his dullard brother Finn giving him a reprimanding look from inside the small bar and grill. He rolled his eyes, turning away as if he didn't notice while thinking that the residences of this town were obviously lacking any creativity, naming the establishment, _The Grill._

 _How utterly original and completely boring._ He sneered in his mind.

In attempts not to sour his mood any more than it already was, he turned a critical and artist eye to his surroundings.

The small seemingly boring town did have a certain hometown-USA quality about it. The old yet well cared for buildings with their many shops dotted what he assumed was aptly named, Main Street. An overly large gazebo stood in the town square and the vast shrubbery and flowers were so well kept and picturesque that it sent a tiny spark of inspiration down to his fingers.

 _The scenery would look lovely, almost whimsical, done up in oil pastels._

His attention turned to the locals who were milling about.

Small children with ice cream slathered on their faces skipped beside with their parents as they chatted away. A young blonde girl stood dejectedly at the side of the street as a local sheriff's car drove off after she had barely closed the passenger door. Teenage boys stood in groups gawking as girls strutted by pretending to ignore them. A few of the girls were not shy as they blatantly checked him out, slowing their speeds in pointless hopes that he would feel inspired enough to speak to them.

 _They had a better chance with the local males gawking at them._ He scoffed to himself.

Unlike most young men his age, he wanted no part of the typical summer fling. Not after the hell he had just went through with his last failed romance.

Klaus deliberately turned, avoiding one brave girl who, after much ribbing from her friends, began walking as if trying out as a runway model in his direction. He smirked as he began walking away, picking up on her irate huff and her friends mocking tittering.

Once he was a safe distance away, he went back to scanning the area just taking in the activity around him to avoid going back inside. It was then that he heard an enraged screech of a girl and the jeering laughter of a pair of boys.

"Give that back!" The little blonde girl he remembered seeing getting out the Sherriff's car yelled. She ran between the two, trying in vain to take back her satchel as the two boys play a cruel game of monkey-in-the-middle.

"Come on Bean-Pole!"

"Yeah, you can do better than that!"

The little girl stomped her foot, "Knock it of Brady! And I saw your Dad's car here Tyler. I'll find him and I'll tell!"

The young lad's, who he assumed to be Tyler, face grew livid and red as he jogged up to her, "You wouldn't dare." He snarled as the other boy held tight her to satchel just inches behind him.

Klaus fully expected the young blonde, who looked to be around his sister Rebekah's age of thirteen, to cower under the boys menacing stance. He was pleasantly surprised to see he was very wrong about her character.

The girl stepped in close, lessening her vivid blue eyes as she hissed, "Watch me." Before spinning on her heels with her blonde hair whacking Tyler in the face to no doubt do as she threatened.

Only she didn't make it far.

Tyler curled his lip and gnashed his teeth before forcefully shoving her in the back with both hands. "You're such a brat Caroline!"

Klaus jumped into action, his only thoughts of saving the poor brave girl who reminded him of his baby sister from a terrible crash to the pavement. He stooped down, catching her face down in his arms right before impact. Gently turning her over to face him, Klaus brushed the hair off her face taking the soft tone he always used when his younger siblings were on the verge of crying to help calm them, "Are you alright Sweetheart?"

Her blue eyes were rapidly filling with tears as she blinked up at him in shock. He was pleased to see her regain her senses, extracting herself from his arms with a steely glaze taking over her eyes, effectively banishing her tears away as though never existed.

"I'd be much better if they'd give my bag back." She clenched her fist as she leveled the boys with an angry glare.

Klaus stood from the ground, dusting his pants off, "Well you heard the Lady," He spoke nonchalantly before aiming a withering glare towards the two boys and growling, "She would like her things back so I suggest you hand them over with an apology before I lose my temper."

He could read from their faces that the two headstrong boys would like nothing more than to spit at his threat. But instead, they choose the wiser course of action with Brady shoving the bag in Caroline's direction as both murmured, "Sorry."

Klaus mockingly held his hand up to his ear, "Pardon? I didn't quite catch that."

"We're sorry we took you bag Caroline." Brady announced begrudgingly.

"And I'm sorry I pushed you." Tyler added through clenched teeth.

Caroline slung her bag over her shoulder with her head held high, "I'll take your apologies under consideration."

Klaus bit back a chuckle at the steel of her spine and the grace of her words. Lifting a lofty brow at the boys, they grumbled under their breaths as they realized they had been dismissed.

"Thanks." Caroline whispered timidly, drawing his attention back to her.

Klaus gave her a small courtly bow with a dimpled grin, "No need for thanks. It was my honor to help a fair maiden in distress."

Caroline giggled with her hand over her lips, "You talk funny."

Klaus feigned offence, "Wow. Here I was, helping a damsel in distress and she mocks my accent."

Caroline's chubby cheeks turned red as she offered him a mumbled, "Sorry."

"It's quite alright Sweetheart." He leaned down with a staged whisper, "Truth be told you all talk funny to me."

They shared a laugh and Klaus opened his mouth to continue but was interrupted by his stiff older brother.

"Niklaus, I think your quick trip for some air has taken long enough. It's time to return to the meeting with Father." Elijah spoke crisply while not making eye contact with his brother.

"He was helping me get my bag back from a couple of jerks." Caroline piped in, not liking the way this man was snubbing her new friend and rescuer.

Elijah took notice of the young girl for the first time. Catching the similar resemblance to their sister back home, knowing that was more than likely what prompted Klaus into action. "I see that he was successful in that endeavor, but now he is needed elsewhere." Elijah tried to give her a semblance of a smile but the ridged quality of it sat strangely in Caroline's gut.

Klaus huffed, rolling his eyes at his brother before turning a soft smile to Caroline. Picking up her hand he placed a tender friendly kiss to her knuckles, "It was an honor to make you acquaintance My Lady. Do try and steer clear of such ruffians in the future."

Caroline giggled sweetly with a blush infusing her cheeks once more, "It was nice to meet you too." She stressed, playfully mocking his way of talking once again.

Both turned in opposite directions, going about their day. Klaus feeling bored out of his mind yet having to pretend to be paying attention while trying not to huff as the talks turned to golf. While Caroline avoided people all together, going to her favorite spot in town, soon forgetting all about the older teenager she would likely never see again.

It was only a few days later that they stumbled across each other again.

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After a rather nasty fight with his Father, Klaus was left behind at the Bed and Breakfast they had taken up residence in for the summer. It was meant to be a form of punishment but for Klaus it only meant freedom.

He had taken his knapsack containing his art supplies and set off on a walk through the woods hoping to find a calming and quiet place to spend his time with his sketchbook. That was when he spotted her. Her chubby baby face was scrunched up in deep concentration with a notebook propped up on her thin wiry legs. He instantly recognized what she was up to by the long smooth swipes of her pencil.

Creeping in silently, he stopped a few feet behind her, peering over her shoulder to see the lovely flower she was currently attempting, quiet well in fact, at drawing.

"You know a charcoal pencil would be better to work with than a standard lead pencil. It gives you the capability to capture the realistic nature of that flower."

Caroline jumped at the familiar sound of his voice, twisting her upper body around to glare up at him, "For all your proper speech, you'd think your Mother would have taught you better manners than to sneak up on a person."

Klaus laughed deeply causing her to huff. "My apologies Caroline. I fear my Mother had a rough go of it trying to instill proper codes of conduct when it came to me."

Caroline tried to keep a stern look upon her face but failed miserably with his great big puppy dog eyes. She scoffed with an eye roll and with a wave of her hand pointed at the fallen tree she was leaning against, "Whatever. I guess since you're already here you might as well join me."

Klaus settled down next to her, pulling out his supplies as he asked, "So I know why I am all alone this summer, being so far away from home and my friends and all, but why are you out here alone? Shouldn't you be off playing some sort of games with your friends?"

Caroline tossed her head back with a groan, "I _would_ be at cheerleading camp with Elena but my Mom refuses to ask my Dad for help so we didn't have the money for me to go. Elena's one of my best friends and I have to spend the summer without her because after cheer camp she gets to go on this summer long family vacation. Which totally sucks because my other friend Bonnie was forced into spending her entire summer with her Dad. And of course, my own Dad chose skip our annual two-week trip together." Her eyes flashed with a mix of hurt and rage as she gripped her notebook tightly and continued snidely, "He'd rather spend time getting to know his boyfriend's daughter instead. And the only time she could do it was during my Dad's only vacation time during the summer because her Mom planned out some big lavish trip to California while my Mom won't even take a stupid day off."

Caroline paused in her rant, a pink hue staining her cheeks as she looked at him sheepishly, "Sorry I tend to talk too much. At least that's what people tell me."

"No need to apologize Sweetheart. I find your exuberance refreshing. It actually reminds me of my sister back home." She smiled at him and went back to her drawing, leaving him to watch her. He felt a pang of sorrow for the younger girl. She should be spending her summer having fun with her family and friends, yet instead everyone either had left for other ventures or decided to spend their time doing other things. "Wait a moment. Did you say your father's _boyfriend_?"

Caroline giggled at his shocked face, "Picked up on that did you? Yeah, a lot of people were just as surprised when they found out. No one more than my Mother."

"I'm sure." He smirked.

"Yup. We were the talk of the town for a few months until it was discovered that Mr. Lockwood was having an affair with his secretary. With him being the Mayor of the town and all that it caused quite a stir. But that one blew over too when my friend Matt's Mom was caught sleeping with a high school boy. He had just turned eighteen but still. So you might want to watch out for her. She likes to hang around the bars a lot."

"I'll do that, thanks for the tip." Klaus reached into his bag and pulled out the case holding his pencils, "Here," He said as he handed her the pencil he had told her about when he frightened her, "Try this for the shading."

The summer continued on this way. The two of them meeting up at the Falls or in other areas of the town that Caroline knew would offer them both the solitude they craved from those who did not understand them as well as inspiration for their art. The weeks they spent together left them bonding over their mutual love of art as well as their dysfunctional families. Klaus opened up to her about when he had turned eleven they had discovered that he was in fact not his Father's son but a product of an affair his mother had had with a traveling artist. About the abuse he suffered as the result and how he did not want to follow in his older brothers' footsteps and dreamed of going off to cultivate his art.

Caroline offered him a reprieve from the chaos whenever he was around his Father and brothers and Klaus in turn took her under his wing as he wished he could do with Rebekah. Having so many siblings under one roof made it hard to be the sole provider of advice and life lessons, but with Caroline being an only child it gave him the opportunity to do so now.

It was nearing the end of the summer, they were deep inside the woods and having stumbled upon a flock of migrating birds they stopped to draw what they discovered. It had been silent and peaceful, nothing but the sounds of chirping birds and the scratching of pencils on paper when Caroline suddenly asked, "Why do you spend all your time with me when all the pretty, older girls in town are always trying to gain your attention? I thought summer flings were a rite of passage for older teenagers?"

Klaus grinned softly, staying focused on his sketchbook, "Why would I want to waste my time with them, when I am already with the most beautiful girl around?" He chuckled at her blush on her chubby cheeks he caught from the corner of his eyes.

She scoffed, "Oh please. I may be young but I'm not stupid."

Klaus frowned and stopped working to look at her, "What do you mean?"

"I'm not beautiful Klaus. I'm young but I'm not naïve. You don't have to say things like that to make me feel better." She turned back to her own sketchbook, the one that Klaus had insisted she have instead of the regular lined paper notebook she had been using, only to have him snatch it from her hands as he turned to face her.

"You have a light inside you Caroline that sets you apart from all I have ever known. You are the same age as my sister, yet nowhere near as bratty. You hold the intelligence of one twice your years. As unconventional as it may seem, I enjoy our time together and would be honored to be considered your lifelong friend." His voice was filled with a sagely knowledge that had Caroline hooked on his every word. "And as far as your outer beauty," He teasingly pinched her cheek earning him a swat on the arm, "despite your keen mind with its dizzying intellect and view of the world around you, you are still a child Sweetheart." He rushed to continue not wanting to hurt her young sensitive feelings, especially considering that no matter how much she tried to hide it he knew of her childhood infatuation with him, "Baby fat recedes and shifts with age. You should have seen me at thirteen, a gangly little thing I was. I see you growing into one of the most beautiful women on the planet. So stunning that men would fall at your feet for a simple smile."

"Why would they fall?" She titled her head as she asked naively.

Klaus chuckled before giving her arm a brotherly pat, "You will understand one day Caroline. But I would ask you to promise me one thing…" He trailed off hesitantly as his mind drifted.

"What's that?"

"Never settle for someone who is unworthy of you. Don't give in simply because someone gives you the attention and affection you crave." His voice carried a melancholy hint that Caroline did not miss.

"Is that what you did?" She asked him gently.

A mocking grin took over his pressed lips, "Yes. And I truly wish I had not wasted my time and allowed myself to be subjected to and pulled in by her charms. Maybe then my brother would still speak to me as he used to."

Caroline's forehead wrinkled in confusion, "What does that have to do with your brother?"

Klaus rubbed the back of his neck as he sighed uncomfortably, "I met this girl, she was a few years older than I, at a local festival. I was taken with her instantly. We flirted and spent the night together until the festival closed. We exchanged numbers and met up a few times after that. It wasn't until a few weeks into our relationship that Elijah came home for a visit from University, excited to finally introduce his lady love to the family that I discovered his lady love and mine were one in the same."

Caroline placed her hand on his arm, "That must have sucked. But I don't see why your brother would be mad at you, she was the one cheating on him."

Klaus glanced at her before quickly looking away again.

"Klaus?" Caroline asked almost afraid to voice what she was beginning to suspect.

"I never uttered a word to Elijah. I went about the dinner as if meeting her for the first time until I could corner her privately. It turned out she discovered I was Elijah's brother shortly after we had met. She claimed she could not choose between us for she cared too much for us both." Klaus gently shook her hand off his arm to frustratingly run his fingers through his hair, "I know I should have told Elijah, or at the very least backed off. But I didn't. I wanted, no I _needed_ her to choose me. To find me the better man." Klaus shook his head and laughed harshly, "In the end we both lost her to yet another man she was seeing. But she made sure to leave us both with a parting gift. She had us both meet her at a local café, neither of us knew it at the time but she decided to come clean and admit to seeing us both as well as this other bloke. Since then, Elijah can barely stomach to look at me."

"Well that explains the first day I met you." Klaus looked at her questioningly, "When he came out I thought it was just being a stuck-up jerk with the way he wouldn't even look in your direction. Guess now I know why."

"And I guess you too will not be able to stomach looking at me either." Klaus muttered self-deprecatingly.

"I definitely don't approve of what you did. After you found out that she was cheating on your brother you should have spoken up." She watched as a sadness filled his gray eyes, and continued softly, "But it doesn't mean you aren't still my friend. People make mistakes and you didn't do anything to me. Plus," She smirked trying to lighten the mood, "I've heard that people do crazy things when it comes to love. Heck! My Mom was in denial about my Dad for so long that she told everyone he had left her for a woman for months."

They smiled, the heavy mood lifting as they continued with their drawing until the sun was ready to set, forcing them to leave the woods before nightfall.

As all things tend to go, especially when dealing with your youthfully years, they come to an end.

With the summer coming to a close, Klaus had to leave and go back home with his family. Caroline had tried so hard not to cry the last time she saw him. She had grown to like having an older brother figure in her life. Though she liked to think of him more like that very distant cousin, the one you could have a small crush on but knew it could and should not ever happen.

What Klaus had assumed would be a terrible way to spend his summer, stuck in some small town in America being forced into following his brother's footsteps, had turned into a peaceful reprieve. And it was all because of Caroline. He made her promise to stay in contact, even when all the boys undoubtedly chased her as she went back to school, through emails. That had earned him her patented eyeroll and a cheeky slap on the arm with a back handed barb to stay away from already spoken for girls.

They did stay in contact for a while but life had a way of getting in the way. A newly budding and blossoming teenage girl got distracted by cheerleading and boys who did not deserve her, while he was caught up in even more family drama and fall outs before he struck out on his own, leaving home for good.

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 _10 Years Later. (Ages 23 and 28)_

Caroline set her keys on the counter of her small apartment, groaning after a long day's work. After graduating college early, much like she did in high school, she had taken the inheritance money her Dad had left her after he died and struck out for something new.

She had taken her love of art and spun it into a career of jewelry design. Proudly she had graduated at the top of her class and already had a leg up in the world of jewelry and accessories design with plenty of investors to back her newly started business.

She had visited New York City shortly after graduation, scouting for a venue to open her shop but had went back to California feeling dejected that nothing had felt right. It had been on a whim that she went with a few of her friends to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras and ended up stumbling across the perfect little shop. A few of her investors had pulled out, not seeing her location choice as the gem it truly was. But between her inheritance and the few investors she had left, she was sure to be up and running within a month.

She eyed the ceiling scathing. That is, if her noisy upstairs neighbor would ever turn his damn music off and let her get some sleep.

She scoffed out loud, talking to herself as she pulled her phone from her purse, "I don't care if he _does_ have good taste in music. I have had enough! I'm sure the asshat isn't even home half the time. Who leaves their damn music blaring anyways?!"

Punching the contact information for her landlord a little too aggressively she tapped her foot as she waited for him to answer.

"Miss Forbes, I hope you aren't having any trouble with your apartment already. You've just moved in a week ago." His thick southern accent sounded chipper through the phone, leading her to respond happily that she caught him in a good mood.

"No, I'm not. Well, not with the apartment anyways, it's as lovely as you promised it would be. It's more trouble with one of my neighbors."

"Oh?" He sounded surprised, "I've never heard any complaints about any of them before. Who are you talking about and what's the issue?"

"Whoever it is that lives above me that's who!" She widened her eyes, throwing her arm out, emphasizing her distress as if he could see her through the phone, "He keeps odd hours and has music playing all hours of the night. I can hardly get any sleep! It clearly states in the rental agreement that…"

The man cleared his throat forcefully, sending static through the phone, "The tenant above you has lived there for the past five years and helps to maintain the building. He's a saint. He even helps my Mother, who lives on the first floor, with her errands and groceries. If he likes to have his music playing at all hours of the day and night I cannot find fault in him."

Caroline paused in shock over his outburst before wincing her eyes as she hissed, "Are you taking his side against me?" She snatched up her rental agreement from the counter, pacing and waving it wildly, "The rental agreement clearly states…"

The man on the line cut her off gruffly, "I am very aware of what it says since I was the one to draft it. I will talk to him about the volume of his music but might I suggest you buy a set of earplugs Miss Forbes."

Caroline pulled her phone away from her ear with a stunned huff, "He hung up on me."

Irritated she slammed her phone on the counter before flouncing off to her room to change. She needed to get out of this apartment and let loose for the night. Cami, who she had met on her first trip to New Orleans and quickly became friends with, did say she was working the bar tonight and she was dying to meet this Marcel guy that had her new friend going all gaga.

Later that night Caroline was finishing what she planned to be the last drink of the evening. She swirled her straw in her glass as she watched Cami lean over the bar, giggling with sparklingly eyes at whatever Marcel had just whispered to her. Caroline had decided quickly after meeting the man that he had her stamp of approval.

Unlike the persistent jerk who was still sitting next to her after her many, in her opinion, glorious rebuffs to dissuade him from seeking her attention. Most men cowered under her icy glare but this guy, this guy seemed to get off on it.

"Oh come on Love, give a bloke a chance." His rich accented voice was spoken as a dare, but she was not falling for it and she kept her gaze on the couple at the end of the bar.

 _The Jerk_ , as she had mentally dubbed him having not cared to learn his name, had been chasing after her and trying to gain her name all night. Sometimes, when she actually looked at him, Caroline felt as if she knew him from somewhere but couldn't quite put a finger on it. She just shrugged it off, ultimately deciding that, due to his unfailing persistence and his inability to take, _go away_ , as an answer, that it must be that he remind her of all the mistakes she had made with the men she dated in the past. That and the hint of possessiveness in his features as he stared at her reminded her too much of the relationship she had recently gotten out of with Tyler. She was _not_ looking to be involved with someone like that again.

She felt his finger trail lightly on the bare skin of her arm, swatting it away she scoffed, "You know I made the mistake of not listening to someone's advice too many times in my life already. I moved here for a fresh start and have finally decided to live my life by those words."

The fire and light in her vivid blue eyes held him enthralled as he leaned in closer, "And what words would those be Sweetheart?"

The way his voice wrapped around the term of endearment sparked a tiny memory within her but she brushed it off as a coincident of just who's advice she was quoting and the accent being so similar, "Never settle for someone who is unworthy of you. Don't give in simply because someone gives you the attention or affection you crave." The way his eyes widened and his breath caught made her feel a little nervous as she lifted her hand to tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.

His eyes were drawn to the bird tattooed on her wrist, a small hummingbird that looked suspiciously like his own artwork. He absentmindedly rubbed the spot on his upper arm where the tattoo of a feather bursting into a flock of birds, flying towards their freedom, laid. His thoughts then drifted to the clever little girl who had drawn it for him before he left at the end of a summer so long ago. She told him it was meant to give him the inspiration to be free from the confines of what his family wanted for his life and to find a way to break free and live his life by his own terms.

"Caroline?" He asked tentatively.

"How do you know my name?" She asked quickly and for the first time that evening he was no longer just another handsome jerk in the crowd. She lessened her eyes as she inspected him further, truly gazing into his gray eyes for the first time that evening, "Klaus?" she gasped.

Klaus smiled widely, his dimples that had made her swoon all those years ago on full display, "I see that I was correct."

"Correct about what?" She grinned as she tilted her head to the side flirtatiously.

He lowered his head slightly, his eyes dancing as he took her in, "That you would grow to be so beautiful and stunning that men would literally fall to their feet for a simple smile."

She laughed lightly, glancing down before looking at him from beneath her thick lashed, "Well I don't see you falling."

Klaus smirked and with a waggle of his eyebrows he promptly stood from his stool and fell to his knees on the floor bringing a beaming smile and laughter from Caroline's lovely lips.

They spent the remainder of the night catching up, Caroline learning how he had left home and had recently opened his own art gallery in the city. They shared a laugh over how funny Fate could be, what with her preparing to open she own shop not a block away from his.

They shared yet another laugh at Fate's design when they discovered they lived in the same building after he offered to walk her home.

"So, you must be the new tenant that called to complain about me." He grinned shamelessly.

"So you must be the vampire staying up all night blaring his music?" She tossed right back as he held the main door to the lobby open for her.

"Guilty as charged." Klaus grinned cheekily before rubbing his chin thoughtfully as they walked up the stairs to the second floor, "Though I suppose I can forgo my planned retaliation of blasting the music even louder now that I know it is you and not some harpy of a woman. Though I will ask for one same thing."

"Oh? And what's that oh creature of the night?" She snickered as they stopped in front of her door.

Klaus casually leaned against the wall beside her door, "A date."

Caroline groaned in mock contempt, "I suppose if it keeps you from blaring your music then I must."

Klaus played along and gasped feigning offence with a hand placed over his heart, "You wound me Sweetheart, I happen to be quite the catch."

"Oh I'm sure. Seeing any girls lately that are already spoken for?" She teased.

Klaus winced, forgetting for a moment that he had informed her of that particular incident. "No, I've made it a point not to see anyone who is already taken."

Caroline pretended to mull it over as she unlocked her door. Stepping inside, but holding the door against her side as a way of telling him that he was not being invited in. She bit her lower lip as he waited with baited breath before nodding, "Pick me up here at Seven O'clock."

Klaus nodded with his lips curved into a knowing grin, "I'll see you tomorrow Caroline."

That night Caroline grinned as she got settled in her bed, her thick comforter wrapped around her like a cloud.

The music playing from upstairs was a soothing jazz mix and was turned down so softly it lulled her to sleep.

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I hope you all enjoyed my Day One drabble for the Klaroline MashUp Event. Look for another one (or two) tomorrow!


	30. Chained to the Light

Klaroline MashUp Event: Day Two: Object prompt: Handcuffs, a paintbrush, and a flower. (Part One)

 _Chained to the Light._

IMPORTANT BACKGROUND INFO FOR THIS STORY:

AU. The canon events as far as Klaus and the curse are the same except the time frame is different and Caroline is not there for any of it. It all happens right after graduation and Caroline had already left Mystic Falls for New York City as a human. Elena was turned into a vampire after the Hybrid ritual due to Damon's blood being in her system. Klaus left town after the curse was broken, doesn't care about making hybrids, he enjoys being the only one of his kind.

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Caroline glanced in the mirror doing her standard double check before she left for any of these types of modeling gig. The loose fitted ankle-length sundress flowed around her frame giving her a whimsical air. It had just enough embellishments that it would hide the fact that she was not wearing a bra and long enough to keep her lower bits from being flashed to the world should a strong gust of wind decide to tempt fate. Not a single line would mar her skin. No bra strap digging in to raise havoc, no panty lines to have eyes frown and critique her with scolding glares. Her thick overly large black framed sunglasses, definitely not her favorite pair but the only ones she owned that wouldn't leave pinch marks on the bridge of her nose and would block the harsh sunrays from her eyes while she traipsed the streets to her destination. Slipping on her most comfortable and worn in pair of ballet flats she was ready to go.

But first, she thought spinning on her heals sending her long natural golden waves dancing threw the air, a blood bag.

That's right, Caroline had been a creature of the night of just over a year now and was adjusting just fine thank you very much. She couldn't helped but feel smug over how much better she had taken to life as a vampire compared to Elena.

It had happened towards the end of summer after graduation on the first and _last_ time her old friends from Mystic Fall had come for a visit. Bonnie, Elena and two brothers that she had some creepy love triangle with had called her up at the last minute saying they were heading to New York City where Caroline had been living and working as a model while she waited for the fall semester of college to begin.

They went out for drinks one night to a trendy new club Caroline had raved about and loved going to with her fellow models. One thing led to another and Elena had ripped off the gaudy necklace Bonnie had given her and started tearing into her neck. The next thing she knew, the blonde brother with the fluffy hair pulled Elena off while the snarky brother she didn't care for was shoving his bleeding wrist in her mouth as Bonnie tried to comfort her. Then in a blink of an eye her entire life changed. Elena somehow over powered lover number one's hold on her and snapped her neck.

What happened after that was sort of a blur. She woke up in her apartment to the brooding brother looking all guilty like _he_ was the one to snap her neck, handing her a blood bag as Bonnie gave her a ring as they tried to explain what was happening to her. Caroline remembered thinking how at least it was pretty if she was stuck wearing it for the rest of her un-dead life before she had scoffed at the excuses they were trying to feed her about Elena.

" _There's no way that was an accident Bonnie. I don't care if you are saying Elena isn't herself right now. You_ know _that bitch and I have always had a weird competition thing going on. She's had it out for me ever since I won Miss Mystic Falls over her. She thought she had it in the bag with all the sympathy votes because her parents died. Hello! You still have to be involved in the town committees."_

Turns out, Caroline thought proudly, she had been right. She had been a vampire for over a year now and she hadn't changed for the worst. She wasn't out there ripping into people's throats. Well, she wasn't ripping into people's throats who didn't deserve it anyhow.

Instead of going all coo-coo-bananas like Elena had done, Caroline had excelled. She was able to study twice as much and still keep her job as a model for hire. She finally felt as if she was who she was meant to be all along. Like somehow she was born to be a vampire.

The microwave dinged and as she pulled out the now warm blood her eyes caught sight of the time. She had just enough time to enjoy her meal before needing to leave or she would pass her standard twenty minutes early to her new job.

She had received the call from the Modeling Agency early yesterday evening. It seemed this newer client, Niklaus Mikaelson, went through models like she went through her favorite chocolates. Though this last-minute call wasn't his fault this time. Bethany had been scheduled for his project but had went to the beach during the afternoon and had forgotten to put on that second layer of sunscreen. A _huge_ mistake for Bethany but a fantastic opportunity for her. Not that she wished any harm to come to Bethany, she really liked the girl and she remembered all too well how much having a sunburn sucked the next day. It was just that the project called for a nude model. Meaning the pay would be triple her normal rate.

Caroline glanced at the small pile of bills that still needed to be paid for the month with glee. After today she would have more than enough to cover them and throw a nice chunk of money in her savings. Maybe she'd even splurge on that designer handbag she had been eyeing for the past month so she no longer had to tell herself that compelling the bag for herself was wrong.

Slinging her tote bag over her shoulders she headed out the door with a beaming smiling ready to take on this new project and client. Hopefully he wouldn't be as bad to work with as the other girls claimed.

On the other side of town Klaus growled in irritation as he tossed his phone to the workbench in the space he had rented out. The upper floor of the apartment building he lived in was currently being renovated, leaving the space bare and open like a blank canvas. But that's not what had drawn him here, empty spaces in New York City were a dime a dozen. It was the floor to ceiling windows that let in the perfect amount of natural lighting that gave off the impression that he was standing outside. He had spent the entire night setting up for his latest project only to find he had missed a call inform him that the model he had picked had to be replaced. The only reason he had worked all bloody night on this space was because the wench refused to work outdoors in the nude. Now the agency had picked out a replacement for him without his approval.

He went back to his phone, opening the email they had sent with the replacement model's photos. He had been trying to capture this idea more than a dozen times already but none of them had worked out quite as he had envisioned, leaving him with little faith that this agency would prove to have just the right person he was looking for.

"Well Caroline Forbes, let's see if you will do." He muttered as he opened the file inspecting the photos with a critical eye. She was beautiful there was no denying that, but only time would tell if she would become his the proper muse.

Exactly twenty minutes before was she due to show up a brisk knock resounded at the door. Klaus smirked as he strutted his way to the door, this Caroline Forbes already had one point in her favor, she was early whether done on purpose or not.

He opened the door with a friendly smile planted on his face ready to greet her, no need to show his teeth just yet, only to have the air knocked from his lungs at the sight of her. His eyes traced over every inch of her striking form. Not only was she beautiful, she was gorgeous. And clever as well. His keen eyes picked up on the lack of undergarments underneath her airy dress.

And then she smiled with a tiny bubbly giggle that made her seem more angelic than he thought possible.

"Do I pass the inspection?"

Klaus chuckled lowly, "You're stunningly perfect Sweetheart. I have a feeling we will work well together." Gathering himself he turned, leaving the door open as he began walking back towards his supplies only to turn at the hesitance in her voice.

Caroline ran her teeth over her lower lip, clutching the bag slung over her shoulder, "Well aren't you going to invite me in then?"

She said it so innocently, as if she was gently chastising him over his manners, but it was then that he noticed it. The only excuse he could offer himself was that he was so caught up in her beauty that he failed to pick it up sooner. That faintly softer beat of an undead heart. His smirk deepened as his husky voice whispered, "Excuse my manners Caroline. Please, come in."

He watched as the secretive smirk grew on her mouth as she crossed the entryway.

Interesting. Was she not aware of just who he was? Of _what_ he was?

"The lighting in here is amazing!" She exclaimed excitedly as she walked passed him, allowing him to take a small whiff of her scent.

By the slight scent of human that still clung to her he would wager a guess to say she was no more than a year maybe two old. So, unless someone was helping her, the odds were she had no idea who he was or even how to detect what he was.

"I chose this place because of it. The original model for this piece refused to work outdoors." Klaus casually explained as he followed behind her towards the set.

Caroline threw a cheeky smile over her shoulder, "Yeah, Bethany is always afraid there will be some weirdo hiding in the trees ready to snap pictures and she'll end up on some freaky porn site. I've told her not to worry so much, the agency would be all over it if it happened." Her head turned back around and before he could utter a response she was gasping in awe over the props for the painting he had constructed.

Caroline was speechless over the set-up this guy had erected. There on the floor by the huge windows was a large section of grass, actual grass! Not that cheap fake crap that made her skin itch. All rolled out to cover an area larger than a king-sized bed. A few feet in from all four corners, four silver bedposts were standing up through the grass designed to look as though it was a bed of grass. Shear cream fabric was draped whimsically between each post giving off a wispy cloud-like quality. Off to the side along the wall were buckets upon buckets of more flowers than Caroline had ever seen. Obviously he had planned to add those in after she was already placed where he wanted her.

"You really went all out, didn't you?" Caroline muttered in awe under her breath, turning to look at him she raised her voice slightly, "This is beautiful. I mean _seriously_ beautiful. It had to have taken you days and cost you a fortune!"

Klaus chuckled at her exuberance. "Actually it was all completed last night and as far as the funds go, I spare myself no expense when it comes to my art and vision." The light glinting off the blue stone of the ring on her index finger caught his eye and he wondered how she planned to get out of this one. "You do know this is a fully nude piece correct?"

Her nose crinkled adorably as she tilted her head, "Yeah, why?"

Nodding his head towards her hand, "Your ring."

"Oh, right." She laughed uncomfortably rubbing her hand over the ring in question, "I wear it so much I tend to forget it's on."

"Well be that as it may, it will need to come off." He watched as a look of regretful resignation dropped over her face, as if she was about to do something she truly disapproved of.

"Mr. Mikaelson…"

"Please, call me Klaus." He eyed her, waiting for even a shred of recognition in her eyes at his name but none came. Only more of that odd regret as she stepped in closer to him, setting her bag to the floor.

He realized what she was about to do when he seen her pupils dilate. It was the last shred of proof he needed to that she had no idea just what type of creature he was.

"You will remember me removing my ring. You will not notice it on my hand until after we are finished for the day." She gulped after releasing him from her assumed compulsion with a whispered, "I'm sorry."

It was that guilt-ridden apology that pushed him to play along for the time being as he repeated her command back to her in a monotone voice before slipping back into his normal persona, "Right then. There's a changing screen over there if you'd like to remove you clothing while I prepare my supplies."

Caroline smiled gratefully, picking up her bag and walked away from him to the screen.

Klaus stood still for a moment, his tongue swiping over his lips as he tried to figure out what was happening to him. From the moment this baby vampire walked through his door it felt as though his entire world had shifted with only a single look from her. Never once in her company as of yet did he feel the need, as he had with so many other supernatural beings, to lord his power over her. To instill in her just why it was many trembled in fear at just a whisper of his name. He even let the girl believe she had compelled him, thinking him some weak, spineless human for fucks sake!

His ears tuned in on her soft humming as she removed her clothing from behind the screen and he felt a lulling calm sweep over him.

This baby vampire, this blonde goddess, was different from anyone he had ever met. She was pure, beautiful and full of light. Hell, this woman was the epitome of light itself. Yet she held a darkness inside of her that he could sense she tried to hide from the rest of the world.

As she appeared from behind the screen, a short thin white robe wrapped around her slender frame he smirked.

He had finally found the perfect muse for his vision. Perhaps for even more than just his art.

Caroline had sang softly as readied herself for this session as a way to distract herself. There was something…different about Klaus. Not in a bad way, but it was almost like he carried the scent of a wolf and a vampire all at once. Which was ridiculous, she had scoffed to herself. But still, as much as she hated to use her standard compulsion about her ring on him, it was more of a test than anything.

 _Vampire 101: Other supernatural creatures cannot be compelled._

She hated to admit it but she was a little disappointed to find he was a human. It would have been nice to finally have another supernatural person in her life again since she rarely even spoke to Bonnie anymore.

Then there were the _other_ reasons she felt disappointment and needed to distract herself from his strange and overpowering presence.

More often than not, the artists she worked with were either way too stuck up and focused on their work or pigs trying to cope a feel and gain a companion for the evening. She was a model not a damn hooker for hire!

Klaus though, she closed her eyes swallowing down a groan, he had a smooth yet rugged way about him. She felt as though she could talk to him for hours and not get bored, unlike most of the men she tended to meet. Plus, with his charm and jaw dropping good looks paired with that accent, it made it hard not to think about letting him cop a feel or two. And maybe a few of her own.

Stepping from behind the screen and seeing him standing there in his low slung jeans and tight t-shirt, both splattered with paint she realized one thing.

There weren't enough calming songs in her arsenal that would keep her lustful urges at bay.

"So, where do you want me?"

Taking in her slender form wrapped in nothing but the flimsy white robe, Klaus bit back a groan and the comment of, _"With your thighs wrapped around my waist or head. Whichever you prefer, Love."_ And instead waved his slightly trembling hand towards the grassy bed, "There in the center if you will."

The husky timber of his voice sent delightful shivers across her skin that she tried valiantly to ignore. If she happened to put an extra sway in her hips as she walked, sue her.

Klaus's eyes fastened on the gentle and provocative sway of her glorious backside as she purposefully added an extra pop to her hips as she walked to the set. He felt a slight twitch in his pants, thanking the Gods above that he held a ridged control over his body.

And then she slowly dropped her robe.

He had always taken much pride on the fact that while in his element and artistic mind frame he never crossed a line. He had worked with many beautiful, sexy, stunning woman over the years and while he had admired them, there were very few that were treated as more than a simple prop or meal at the end of their sessions.

And now there was Caroline.

Caroline with her luscious curves that looked as though they were built strictly for his hands. Caroline with her satin smooth looking skin that his fingers itched to touch and his tongue was salivating to taste. Caroline who seemed to test very ounce of his self-control.

Then she knelt to the grassy carpet, turning to face him as she sat in the center waiting for him to instruct her on which position he wanted her in leaving him salivating.

She was a work of art on a completely different scale. He had a hard time believing that he would ever be able to capture her true beauty on canvas.

He tried to maintain a professional demeanor as he helped her to move in the position he desired her in, but every move she made, every tantalizing whiff of her scent that came his way brought a fire to his blood and a gasp from his lips.

Though, if the darker tint to her blue eyes and the small knowing smirk on her lips were anything to go by, it would appear that Caroline didn't mind it one bit. The little vampire knew exactly what she was doing to him and was enjoying every moment of it.

 _Well then Sweetheart, if that's the game you want to play, let's see just who will come out on top._

Klaus thought with a devious smirk as he dragged a few of the flower bins closer. He used the time it took to artfully arranging the flowers upon the grass surrounding her as a means to gather what was left of his wrecked control. His ego rose a few notches with every soft sigh and muffled groan from her lips as he bent and flexed his body while arranging the flowers.

Once completed he finally felt he had some semblance of control over his raging arousal. _Now_ _the fun part begins_ , he thought wickedly as he looked her over once more and began describing just what his goal was for this particular piece.

"My focus on this piece is as simple as it is intricate. It requires certain elements to not only appeal to the viewers but express the balance and struggle between dark and light." He was pleased to find Caroline's chest heaving as she hung on his every soft-spoken word. "The title of this piece is, _Chained to the Light_." He paused for a moment, withdrawing a pair of sliver handcuffs from his back pocket taking delight in her gasp as well as the heat he felt from her penetrating gaze. "Are you comfortable with wearing these Caroline?"

Caroline swallowed harshly at the picture he painted. Standing above her with the light shining on his back casting him in a glow while the shadows danced over his features. A pair of handcuffs dangling from his fingers, clinking together as they swayed like some sinful promise. A small part of her wished they were in a different scenario and the cuffs would be strong enough to hold her. Licking her lips, she cleared her throat before hoarsely replying, "Yes."

A wicked curve took over his lips, "Good." He knelt beside her, motioning for her to lift her arms above her head before clasping the handcuffs gently around her wrist. His voice sounded heavy as he relished in the touch of her soft skin, "Is that alright?"

Not trusting herself to answer Caroline simply nodded her head, glancing up to him with dark lustful eyes.

He nearly fell into them before shaking out of the erotic moment, allowing his artistic eye to take over as he gazed down her body and silently began placing flowers and petals strategically on her body. Her back was arched slightly to the side, pushing her lovely breasts up higher. Her legs were held together with just the barest peak of her dark curls showing from between her thighs with her knees slightly bend and her feet off to the side. She looked like a mouthwatering feast for all his senses.

If he happened to lightly drag a flower here and there over her skin, taking a few moments to admire the shivers he had wrought, she never complained.

Once finished he stood, admiring his new glorious muse yet feeling something was not quite complete yet.

If he had it his way, he would have her vampire eyes on full display with a small stream of blood dripping from her plump red lips.

 _Maybe another time._ He thought, dreaming of all the ways he could entice her into it as he substituted the blood for a dark red rose placed in her hair just above her ear.

"Perfect." He breathed in awe.

Caroline's lips twitched into a small smile before falling back into her seductive pout.

"Keep your lips just like that." Klaus uttered in excitement as the vision that had been haunting him for months now finally was laying there right before him. Now that the artist in him had taken over, his control was not only flagging over his lustful musings but of the need to move about at his supernatural speed to get this lovely creature committed to canvas before she disappeared like the ethereal mirage she not doubt had to be.

He dragged the oversized table closer to the glassy bed, placing the easel and a smaller supply table on top before heaving his body to stand before it to give himself the best view of the painting. As he began, he let himself get lost in the sensual strokes of his paint brush and the honor of having such a gorgeous subject.

For Caroline, staying still in one position had never been an issue but today it was trying every inch of control she had. She had never felt turned on during a session before yet today she felt as though she was being burnt from the inside out. If she didn't know any better she would have sworn that Klaus had cast some type of lust spell over her.

She could still feel the phantom touch of his fingers gliding over her skin as he placed the flowers over her body. The cool metal of the handcuffs was now hot against her skin from the blazing heat her body was trapped in.

She was glad that he had her laying with her legs together, keeping the wetness that was seeping from her core hidden from his gaze.

For at least the hundredth time since starting this session she was thanking her lucky stars that he had proven to not be a supernatural being after all. She could hear every hitch of his breath, every groan from his throat along with the spicy aroma of his arousal. At least with him being human she wouldn't embarrass herself by him picking up on her own quiet moans and the scent of her heavy arousal.

 _I seriously need to get laid._

She berated herself as another quiet whimper snuck past her lips as his shirt lifted, showing more of his tantalizing skin as he bent to add more paint to his pallet.

He had worked for hours without stopping. The sun was just beginning to set when she heard him set his paint brush down and with a dimpled smile he announced reverently, "It's finished."

Caroline waited impatiently as he jumped off the table and walked over to her to release her wrists from the handcuffs. Taking his offered hand to help her to rise had been a huge mistake. The rough touch of his palm scratching against her sensitive skin brought back all the intense longing she had just started to turn off.

Standing beside him dressed in nothing but her robe, staring in shock at the way he had painted her to look so sensual and beautiful was not helping matters either. "You have an amazing talent Klaus. This is…wow. I've never seen myself painted so…" She trailed off not knowing what to say. He had managed to capture her so extraordinarily beautiful that she had a difficult time believing it was even her.

Klaus felt his chest puff out with pride. This was his best work yet. He turned his head, his eyes blazing into hers, "It's not difficult to create something so beautiful when the muse is more stunning than the Goddess Aphrodite herself was fabled to be."

Caroline choked down a whimper at his words and the heat radiating off him. Clearing her throat, she tucked her hair behind her ear, pressing her lips into a small smile as she removed the flower and went to hand it to him.

Klaus pressed the blood red rose back into her palm, "Keep it Caroline."

"Right. Thanks." She smiled hesitantly, "So I should go get dressed."

Klaus wanted to protest as she disappeared behind the screen. He kicked himself a fool for not claiming the work needed more time. For the first time in a long while he felt intrigued by a woman as something more than just a means to an end. He would be satisfied just spending more time in her presence. That simple, yet massive, realization floored him. As he heard Caroline nearly finishing he knew he was running out of time to think of a way to gain her company a little longer.

Caroline slipped her shoes on as she scooped her hair up in a messy bun. She had to get out of here. She didn't know what was happening to her but if she didn't get out of Klaus's charming presence, her carnal need was going to take over and she would pounce on him like some animal in heat.

She hoped she had covered her obvious lustful wanting of him but as she rounded the screen and seen the heat flare in his eyes she knew she hadn't done a well enough job.

Planting her Miss Mystic pageant smile on her face, she stuck out her hand for a quick handshake, "It's been a pleasure working with you Klaus. Good luck with selling your new piece."

All signs pointed to danger when he flipped her hand and lowered his head to brush his lips over her knuckles. His dark gray eyes screamed sex as his deep voice taunted her hormones, "The pleasure was all mine Caroline." She gently pulled her hand from his grasp as a shot of warmth hit her core at his purr of her name.

Klaus straightened, feeling immense gratification of his effect on her, "The piece turned out to be more than I ever dreamed it to be, and that's all because of you, so thank you."

"Yeah well, I um…should go." Caroline turned to the door but stopped with it halfway open at the sound of his rushed voice.

"Wait!" He didn't want her to leave but now that he had her attention with her brow curved up waiting for him to speak he felt tongue-tied at how to get her to stay, "Would you like to join me for a drink?"

With the way she all but wanted to devour him and have him reciprocate in kind, this was far too dangerous for him. She could easily lose control of herself in the heat of the moment and really hurt him. Caroline felt a twinge of regret but knew this had to be done. "I'm sorry Klaus, but it goes against my contract to see a client outside of working hours." She offered him a small smile and a whispered, "Goodbye Klaus." And was gone.

Klaus was left standing in shock at her refusal. While he was sure her contract read something of the sort he was just as sure that she was only using it as an excuse. The sun sank below the horizon, shadows swallowing the room and him whole as he smirked.

 _Caroline Forbes would turn out to be the most delightful and rewarding challenge yet._

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YES! There is a Part Two for this. I had planned to have it done and posted today as well but time got away from me. I'm still going to try and do that but if I can't look for it soon!


	31. Holding Out for a Hero

Klaroline MashUp Event: Day 3 Troupe: Bed Sharing + Magic

 _Holding Out For A Hero_

(Caroline is captured by a group of disgruntled witches on a surprise visit to NOLA. No magical babies of any kind and none of that Cami/Stefan nonsense.)

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The door to St. James Infirmary opened letting in the early afternoon light. Josh set down his rag to grab a glass and a bottle of bourbon when he saw just who it was strutting in. He had just poured the liquor over the ice in the glass as Klaus took a seat at the bar.

"So? How was your night?" Josh asked as he slid the glass to him barely holding back his excitement.

Klaus narrowed his eyes in suspicion, "It went as well as any night in the Quarter with the blasted witches causing their nightly riots."

"Yeah, yeah but besides that? How did it go?" Josh bounced up and down on the soles of his shoes causing the Hybrid to question the boy's sanity as it grated on his nerves.

"What has you bouncing with such chipper glee? I have half a mind to snap your neck just to stop that incessant squeaking of your heels." Klaus lowered his chin, the dark glint in his gray eyes showing just how close he was to following through with the threat.

Josh felt a tremor of fear lance through him, he wouldn't put it past Klaus do to as he threatened and instantly stood flat on his feet as he deflated, "So she didn't show up then? If she did you would be in a better mood or not here at all. I thought for sure she would show up."

Klaus groaned as he ran a tired hand over his face. He had come here to get away from the incessant arguing over how to handle the group of rouge witches, and instead of finding the peace and quiet he craved, he had to listen to Josh yammer on. "What are you blathering on about now?"

"Last night a few hours before closing a vampire I've never seen before came strolling in." He paused to think for a moment before waving his hand, "Well not so much strolling as _slinking_ in. She came to the bar, ordered a drink and stayed pretty quiet for a while but oddly focused on the door. She seemed like she had a lot on her mind or something because she kept standing up looking all determined to do something before plopping back down on that stool over there and ordering another drink."

"I have no need for a play-by-play of the lady's night, only what it has to do with me. Get to the point Mate." Klaus hissed as his fingers flexed around the glass.

Josh's gaze was drawn to the Hybrid's hand wrapped around the glass. Gulping, he rubbed the base of his neck as if feeling phantom fingers applying pressure there. "No need for any neck snapping, I'm getting there but since she didn't show up I figured you should hear it all."

Klaus pushed his empty glass towards him, signaling he required a refill as he decided he would give the boy five minutes before the young vampire would be forcefully taking a nap on the bar room floor.

"So anyways, it took me a little while to get her to talk. She was stubborn but smart to keep quiet, almost like she knew she should be careful who she talked to. But after the fifth drink, well my fifth more like her tenth. Man, that girl can put them away!" His humorous smile dropped when he noticed Klaus's impatient glare, "But then she was all, _fuck it! Klaus had better want to see me after all his big talks of last loves._ And then she left."

Klaus felt the blood drain from his face as his heart skipped a beat, "What?"

"I said and then she left."

His mind raced over what Josh was implying. The words, _last love_ , repeated through his mind. If it was _her_ , and she uttered those words aloud it could only mean one thing. But then again, his mind was having a hard time believing she had actually shown up _for him_ and not just for his help. "What did you say her name was?"

"Huh, I didn't actually." Josh said as if he had just realized that fact, "She said her name was Caroline I think. Yeah, Caroline."

Klaus felt his heart stop yet again before it began beating nearly out of his chest. She had truly come to him. Even going as far as to tell Josh, even if it was unintentional, about his last love speech. So then why was it he had not seen nor heard from her? "When did she leave?"

Josh furrowed his brow as he thought it over, "I think it was just after midnight last night? So, she would have made it to your place by now." He continued hesitantly, Klaus was known for killing the messenger and if his face was anything to go by this was not news he would want to hear, "I'm sorry man but I think she might have left for good."

Klaus knew that was an option. In fact, it was highly probable that Caroline walked outside, had the fresh air hit her, clearing her mind and sending her running before he caught wind of her presence in New Orleans. On the other hand, if anyone had overheard her talking in the bar and connected her to him, they could have easily told the witches. And unfortunately, the time frame of when she had left and when he and his siblings had ended last night's riot were only an hour apart. Which meant they could have her now. Which meant, "Damn it."

Josh's arm flew out, just missing the glass, watching as it shattered on the floor as Klaus flashed from the building. "We should really buy stock in the glassware company. At least then we could make some of our money back."

Klaus stopped when he hit the edge of the sidewalk outside of St. James Infirmary with the deep realization that he had no idea where to start. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he tossed it back and forth between his hands. If she answered, he would know she was safe. But on the other hand, if she did not answer it could meant one of two things, she had been captured or she was avoiding him after hightailing it out of town.

Hitting her number while hoping to hear her snarky lyrical voice, his lips pressed together as the ringing in his ear was echoed by a phone ringing close by. Not one to believe in coincidences, he kept the phone to his ear while following the sound to the nearby alleyway.

The alley was empty of any movements or sounds other than the ringing phone. He walked further into the alley, his boots scratching the stones as he spied something off to the side by a dumpster. There on the ground was a purse with its strap broken laying in a dried pool of blood.

Klaus held his breath as he ended the call on the third ring. His eyes slammed shut as his fear was realized. The phone had stopped its ringing just as he ended the call. Inhaling deeply, he took comfort that the dried blood did not carry the same scent as a vampire's.

Picking up the bag he was taunted with the distinct scent of Caroline coming from it, but it wasn't until he removed the phone finding, _One Missed Call From: Klaus_ , staring back at him that be believed it to be true.

Caroline Forbes had come to New Orleans last night. She had come for _him_ but was taken before she even crossed the street.

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Klaus burst through the door to Freya's apartment unannounced startling the witch.

"You could at least knock Klaus." She placed her hands flat on her workbench as she reprimanded him.

She was met only with a purse bring shoved into her hands and his demand, "I need you to perform a locator spell using this."

"Okay," She said slowly as she took the purse to her supplies and map of the city not wanting to push him closer to the edge he was obviously standing on if the slightly fearful and anxious look in his eyes was anything to go by. "Mind telling me just who it is that I'm looking for?" She glanced at him as she pulled the items she would need together.

"No." He spoke firmly as he watched his sister work.

"Huh." Freya breathed looking at the map strangely. Her hands moving quickly over it to perform the spell once more.

"What? What happened? Did you find her?" Klaus spit the questions out without taking a single breath as he waited for her answer.

"Nothing." Freya looked over the map again as she completed the spell the second time to garner the same results. Glancing back at her brother, she noticed his slip of the tongue. He had said _her_. "Well not nothing, it's just that I was able to find _her_ fairly easily." She carefully watched him as he studied the map, it was obvious that whoever this _her_ was, she meant a great deal to him. From all that she had learned about her siblings over the past few years, this was definitely something new. Klaus didn't care for anyone outside of their family and yet he was afraid, no terrified for this girl.

Klaus's eyes glanced over the map and the area where Caroline was being held before marching towards the door as if he was heading into a battle he had no other choice but to win. Only to have it slam close in front of him.

He attempted to pry it open only to find it was sealed shut by magic. His eyes flashed with anger as he turned back towards his sister, "Open the door Freya before I _make one_ through your wall."

"You can't just go charging off to whoever it is you are looking for. I found her way too easily Klaus. This could be a trap." Freya could tell even before she was done speaking that her efforts to reason with him were falling on deaf ears.

"I'm quite sure it is, but I will not leave her there alone, having the Gods only know what happen to her." He eyes narrowed as he took in his sister's firm stance, "Let me remind you that there are plenty of ways to incapacitate a witch without killing her. Now," He growled menacingly, "Open the damn door Freya."

Freya wanting to hold strong but sighed and with a wave of her hand unlocking the door. With a worried look on her face she watched as her brother disappear. Closing the door, she curiously walked back to the purse, withdrawing the wallet from inside, "Who is Caroline Forbes?" She wondered aloud before trying to track down her other siblings to not only find out who this mysterious girl was but to send them Klaus's way. Something told her whoever had taken this Caroline and whatever they had planned would spell nothing but heartache for their brother.

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Klaus easily made it to the old dilapidated home near the edge of the swamp where the locator spell showed Caroline to be. His keen senses detected nothing but a faint vampire's heart beat coming from the lowest level of the once beautiful home. But he knew better than to believe that whoever had taken her had just left her here alone. Besides he scoffed, witches with their parlor tricks, were capable of maintaining a concealing spell hiding themselves even from the likes of him. For he had no doubts that the witches were behind this.

 _Though that wouldn't last for long._ Klaus thought with a smirk as he tested the broken entryway of the home with the toe of his boot, finding he could cross without issue.

One inside, he cautiously followed Caroline's scent while keeping his senses open for the impending attack he knew was coming. Regardless of the trap he knew this to be, his main concern was the weak and slow thump of her heart.

His mind played a thousand scenarios as he crept down the rotting staircase to the cellar. The only thing stopping him from giving into his need to flash to her, only to be waylaid by a trap, was that her heart was still beating. She was still alive. Though he promised the pain of a thousand deaths to those who had harmed her, putting them through a thousand times more pain than they could ever imagine for touching a single hair on her golden head.

As he came closer to the room her heart beat and shallow breathing was coming from Klaus couldn't help the spear of guilt that burned through him. Whatever was done to her was his fault. If only he had left her alone. If only he had not charmed her, laying sweet promises that, even if they were the truth, only led her to this fate. If only he didn't feel the myriad of emotions he did for her than…

"Caroline." His self-incriminating thoughts were banished from his mind as he took in the sight before him from the doorway of her makeshift cell.

There the beautiful woman who had captured his heart with her sunshine smiles and stinging barbs laid on an old lumpy mattress, unfit for even the mangiest stray animal to lay upon. Her once alabaster skin now held a deathly gray hue with darkened veins marring its smooth surface, signaling to him that some sort of spell had been placed upon her. Her hair was dull as it laid haphazardly around her head where it once shined with a luster that would put the brightest stars to shame.

Klaus shook himself from his stupor, chastising himself for waxing morbid poetry as she laid near desiccation and perhaps death. Flashing to her side, he knelt to the edge of the mattress on the floor of the tiny cell. His hands ghosting over the rough texture of her face as he called her name repeatedly only to be met with her labored breath as her lungs rattled.

He quickly bit into his wrist as his other hand tried and failed to pry her mouth open.

Leaning down closer, trying to withhold the panic held felt in his breast from his voice, he whispered, "Caroline? Please Love, I need you to wake up for me."

Klaus pulled back, disappointed to find she was not responding. Hoping to rouse her, he placed his blood covered wrist with its now closed wound under her nose. "Come on Caroline. You need to drink. And what better meal than that of the Original Hybrid?" His heart began to sink when the expected sassy comment at his over-inflated ego did not come but was reawakened when her eyelids began to flutter.

Brushing her hair back and smoothing his hands over her face and neck he encouraged her, "That's it Caroline. Wake up for me Love. I need you to tell me what an egotistical male I am for assuming such things."

He heard her harsh and painful gulp coming from her throat as her eyes fluttered half open. His chin quivered in fear and anger at the dull shade of her once vivid blue eyes. Quickly dropping his fangs, he bit back into his wrist, tearing the skin open as he shifted his arm behind her neck for support as he placed it to her lips once more.

"Drink." He ordered firmly, breathing a sigh of relief when he felt her chapped lips open against his skin as she took a few small gulps of his rich healing blood.

Only that relief was short lived.

He turned her to her side as quickly as possible as she began choking and gagging on his blood, letting it fall back from her mouth and down her front as it expelled from her.

Her breathing was ever weaker as he rolled her back over, worriedly checking her over as her eyes drifted opened and shut, her mouth attempting to form words.

He was so preoccupied with her attempts to speak and the shock that she could not hold his blood down that he failed to sense anyone behind him until it was too late.

The cell door slammed shut with enough force he swore the house would crumble to dust and the chanting that followed confirmed his assumption that the witches were behind this.

Gently laying Caroline back to the mattress, he flashed to the door, using all his hybrid strength to yank and ram into the door, yet failing to make it budge even an inch.

A small porthole, barely large enough to fit a few fingers through, creaked open as he pounded on the door, shouting threats while the chanting continued.

"What is the meaning of all this!" Klaus shouted as he recognized the old witch as the leader of those who were sparking the nightly riots on the other side of the door.

The old witch cackled in glee, "This is us teaching you a lesson you won't soon forget. It was very lucky that a few of my younger coven members happened across your little baby vampire there." Her beady eyes shifted to glance over his heaving shoulders, "Though unlucky for her I would imagine."

Klaus felt his temper rise at not only what had been done to Caroline already but the threat of what was to come. His eyes flashed with rage as he snarled, "You will not look at her witch! She is innocent in all of this; your quarrel is with me!"

"She is a bloodsucker just as you are!" Her dark green eyes blazed with disgust, "Besides, she should have been more careful with the company she keeps."

"She is nothing like me. Let her leave this place without any further harm and you can have me." For a moment Klaus could see his unorthodox pleading for another's life threw the witch off her guard. But it only lasted for a moment before the hatred and triumph was back in her eyes as she realized she had chosen rightly by capturing the young blonde vampire.

"You think that is enough?! You think that the ones you've killed of ours where not innocent in this fight just like her?" She screeched.

"What is it you want? What can I give you to secure her release?" Klaus attempted to reason with the witch as the coven behind her continued with their chanting. Everyone had a price, he just need to figure out what this witch's was.

Her dark green eyes narrowed as what little he could see of her face fell blank before she stated firmly, "You made our people suffer, now we will make you suffer."

Klaus gnashed his teeth, hissing as he pressed himself closer to the door, "Whatever you do to us in here know one thing; we _will_ get out of here eventually and when we do, I will kill you all."

The old witch smirked evilly, "When _you_ are released you will be but a shell of the man you are now. Nothing but a haunted man who will be so wracked with guilt he will not lay a finger on any of us." Her withered lips curved into a mocking pout, "After all, I cannot imagine how you would have the will for much of anything after you have slaughtered and killed your very own _last love_."

With that the old hag slammed closed the small porthole and the chanting increased and with it his left leg snapped in two, rearranging itself into its other deadlier form.

Klaus turned his terrified eyes towards Caroline who was sprawled weakly across the mattress, covered in his blood as if she had attacked him. His heart started hammering inside his chest as he grasped that he was being forcefully changing into his wolf. His wolf who would see her as nothing but a threat to be extinguished.

For the first time in longer than he could fathom Klaus felt genuine panic. Sweat began to build upon his brow, trickling down the side of his face at the effort he exerted while trying to maintain his precarious control over his body. His yellowed, bloodshot eyes rapidly scanned the room, searching wildly for any means for her escape or protection.

There was nothing.

The small ten by ten cell held nothing but the lumpy mattress with the fragile vampire and an out of control shifting hybrid.

With a sudden pierce of pain shooting through his leg as it began snapping and shifting once again Klaus bellowed in pain as he fell to the floor. "No. No. No. No!"

His fist pounded against the concrete floor until the bled as he repeated his denial of their current situation as if it would prove to be nothing more than a horrid nightmare concocted by his traitorous mind.

"Klaus."

His breath was ragged and his head shot up as the sound of Caroline's raspy voice cut through his physical and emotional torment. Watching as her grayed arm lifted slightly, her hand beckoning him closer before it fell limply to her side.

He cursed himself a weak and undeserving fool as he looked at her, clenching his teeth as he crawled onto the mattress beside her.

"I will figure something out Caroline, I swear it." He hissed, pressing his lips together to hold back a groan of agony as his right foot bend and snapped at an unnatural angle.

She wheezed as she attempted to speak, feebly raising her hand to clutch his shirt, using it as leverage to work her way up to his sweat covered cheek. Biting out her words between shallow breaths, "Won't…hurt…me."

Klaus laughed disparagingly, his control slipping once again as his femur cracked. His voice labored and cracking as he shook his head, "I'll more than hurt you Caroline. In moments, I will be ripping your body to shreds."

Her head shook a minuscule degree, giving him a soft smile as a single tear leaked from his eye, "No. Trust you."

His fangs dropped of their own accord as he snarled, "You shouldn't."

Caroline opened her mouth to respond, her throat emitting a harsh choking rasp at her efforts. Her dry tongue swiped over her chapped lips as her dull yet expressive eyes glazed up at him, "Believe in you."

"Why?" The sheer agony dripping from his voice and eyes was no longer over the pain of the shift being forced upon him, but of how she could be staring death in the face yet still seep such conviction at what she was trying to tell him. "Moreover, how could you?"

Her teeth scraped against her lower lip before her rough, cracking voice whispered firmly, "Love me."

A sharp stabbing pain cut through him at her words. Yes, he loved her. He loved her more than he could even comprehend. But like all things he cared for, he eventually destroyed them in the end. He just never imagined _this_ would be the way he destroyed _her_.

"Stefan." She panted reining his attention back in, "Elena."

Klaus furrowed his brow, wondering just why she would be bring up the Ripper and that pesky doppelganger at a time like this.

"Stefan. Elena." She said more forcefully. She huffed in frustration at not being about to say more than a few clipped words, "Compelled, but didn't."

A sudden flash of understanding dawned on him. He had compelled the Ripper to hurt Elena and yet his love for the worthless doppelganger had won out in the end. He recalled how utterly extortionary he had found it to be at the time. That the Ripper's love for that human girl had been strong enough to resist even the power of _his_ compulsion.

Klaus clenched his jaw as he felt pressure in his back, signaling that it was only moments away from snapping in two. His eyes sought hers out, taking comfort and strength from the faith her eyes carried for him as she relaxed back on the mattress when she seen the understanding on his face.

Leaning over her, he placed a tender kiss upon her brow whispering, "I will not fail you Caroline."

He dragged his pain wracked body away from her, pulling his shirt over his head and grinding his teeth together as he carefully removed his pants from his misshapen legs.

Moments later the screams of pain he could no longer withhold mutated into a gruff groan of agony before a howling angry snarl echoed throughout the dilapidated house.

.

.

.

Blood covered the broken walls of the barely standing house on the upper floor. Kol shook his head in pity as he dropped a dead witch to the floor, her neck savagely ripped apart.

"Such a waste of talent."

"They were plotting against our family Kol, they should have thought of the consequences." Rebekah huffed callously as she too dropped a ravaged body to the floor.

Elijah sighed in exasperation at his siblings who were too much like Niklaus is in opinion. "It is always a sad day when life is lost Rebekah, no matter the cause."

The old witch gagged against the pressure as Elijah held her by the throat against a wall, "How noble of you Elijah. Did you say the same before you fell asleep last night after slaughtering some of my people?"

Elijah turned a withering eye towards her, "I gave you my ideas for peace in the Quarter and you in turn shot them down. You knew the consequences and what would lie ahead for your people due to your action. Now, where is my brother?"

A malicious glint took over the old woman's eyes as she cackled, "He's downstairs. Though I warn you, I cannot guarantee how much of him his left."

Rebekah flashed to their side demanding, "What do you mean by that you old hag?"

The witch only smirked in defiance.

Elijah exerted more pressure against her throat, "You would do well to answer her now. There are worst fates than death." He promptly bit into his wrist, taunting her with his blood.

She chocked once more against Elijah's hold, but maintained her mocking countenances, "We forced him to change into his wolf form."

"Well that can't be that bad considering you have him locked in a room." Kol joked as he too moved to flank Elijah's side.

"It wouldn't be," The old witch rasped, "If we didn't lock him up with a pretty and desiccated blonde vampire."

Rebekah's hands covered her mouth as she gasped. Kol's eyes widened before he flashed forward, ripping the witches head clear off her neck.

Elijah groan as he let the headless body fall the floor, withdrawing a handkerchief from his breast pocket to clean his hands, "Was that truly necessary Kol?"

"Oh brother, you have no idea. The boon I granted her in death was more peace than she ever deserved for what she did." Kol spoke gravely.

"Why? Who is this vampire she spoke of?" Elijah questioned his siblings.

"Caroline Forbes." Rebekah replied woodenly.

Elijah furrowed his brow in confusion, "Elena's friend?"

"Oh, she is much more than that twit of a doppelganger's friend to our dear brother." Kol muttered as he eyed the stairway leading down to the cellar of the house in trepidation.

"I hardly see how any of this matters." Elijah announced as he walked towards the stairs only to be stopped by Rebekah's trembling hand on his arm.

"You don't understand Elijah. You weren't around during all the time he chased her."

Elijah huffed, gently removing his sister's tightly gripped hand from his forearm, "I'm sure she was nothing more than a passing fancy or a challenge to be conquered."

Kol flashed in front of his brother, stopping him from proceeding down the stairs with his arms on either side of the doorway. He _needed_ Elijah to understand the severity of what this could mean for their brother, "I wouldn't count on that brother. I thought something similar once before back when our relentless Mother was back from the dead. But I am telling you Elijah, if he has harmed her in anyway, or Gods forbid killed her, we will lose him. Forever."

Never in their centuries of roaming the Earth together had he saw Kol as serious as he was in that very moment. His eyes flicked between his younger brother and Rebekah who, shockingly, was gnawing on her lower lip with tears filling her eyes.

"He truly cares that much for the girl," He cleared his throat, "For Caroline?" At their shaky nods, his mind whirled in confusion, "How was I not aware of this?"

"I'm not sure Elijah. It could be that you were gone most of our time spent in Mystic Falls but a part of me thinks it was something more than that." Rebekah replied thoughtfully.

"What do you believe it to be?" He whispered curiously.

"I honestly couldn't say Elijah. But both Kol and I, as well as the whole of Mystic Falls knew of his obsession with her. Don't you find it the least bit curious that you were the only one without that knowledge?"

Kol groaned, dropping his arms as he began trudging down the stairs, "All I know for sure is that all these twenty questions will not change what we may or may not find down here. So, let's be done with it and get Nik, and hopefully Caroline as well, out of that cell."

The three stopped outside the closed door, all taking a moment to steady themselves before any of them moved to touch the door. With the witches all dead, the barrier spell as well as the spell cast upon their brother would had vanished, yet still their eyes glanced between them as if trying to persuade the other's to be the one to open the door.

"Oh, for fuck's sake!" Kol exclaimed before he cautiously cracked opened the door.

What they found drained all feelings of fear and trepidation from them, replacing them with utterly astounded amazement.

There on a ratty mattress laid a large wolf, his body curled protectively around a haggard, yet very much alive and sleeping Caroline.

Leaning in closer in wonder at the sight, Kol let the door swing the remaining way open, sending it crashing against the wall.

The wolf's head shot up at the sound, the hair on its back standing on edge as it began growling viciously at the perceived threat.

Caroline groaned at the movement, cracking her eyes open to see Klaus's family staring at them slack jawed while Klaus growled and snarled over her protectively. Raising her arm, pleased to find that her strength, while still weak, was slow returning. She ran her fingers through the fur on his large neck whispering soothingly, "Hey, hey. It's okay. It's your family."

The siblings were left in a state of perpetual shock as the wolf let its mouth relax as he turned his snout towards Caroline's raspy voice.

Kol took a step past the threshold only to be pulled back quickly by Rebekah as the wolf's head snapped back, growling a warning in their direction.

Caroline weakly tugged on his ear, her dry voice firmly commanding, "Stop that. They're your siblings."

The Mikaelson siblings watched on in amazement as the wolf whined sheepishly at her before closing its large yellow eyes, taking in a deep breath through its nose. They watched with bated breath, wondering what would occur next as its eyes opened they could see the flash of recognition flare in his eyes.

Elijah took a cautious step forward keeping Kol and Rebekah behind him as he held his hands held up showing he meant them no harm, "Niklaus?"

His large head nodded and his siblings filed into what little space the room provided. Now that the danger had passed they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Kol chuckled as he picked up the pair of pants and shirt that sat on the floor, "At least you had the frame of mind to leave yourself something to go home in Brother. Wouldn't want to be strutting about the streets naked, now would you?"

"Must you always be so crass." Rebekah scoffed.

Kol looked blankly at her, "Yes."

"Whatever. Can we please leave this dastardly place and go home now that all the drama is over and down with? I have witch under my nails that will take me hours to scrub out." She huffed turning on her heels after giving a hesitant and slightly leery smile towards her brother in his wolf form and the weak girl on the mattress before leaving the cell.

"Leave it to our sister to be worried about her manicure." Kol teased following her out of the room.

Elijah cleared his throat gruffly, offering a grin to Caroline, "Please excuse my siblings' poor manners Miss Forbes. I believe they are not quite as comfortable with Niklaus in his current form as you seem to be." He eyed her slightly gray fingers that still combed through the fur on his brother's neck, "If you don't mind me being blunt, with your current coloring you are looking a touch weak." He walked closer to the mattress and began to bend down, "If you would allow me, I shall carry you from this place while Niklaus changes back."

He quickly withdrew from his crouched state at the threat of having his hand nearly bitten off seconds before he touched her.

Klaus snarled and snapped causing Caroline to roll her eyes, "I think he wants to play the hero. Thanks anyways. We will be up in a minute or two."

Seeing that her words had calmed his brother, Elijah nodded his head and took his leave.

Waiting until she heard the footsteps echo through the house and reach the front porch Caroline lamely smacked Klaus's side and scolded, "That was rude."

Klaus simply huffed with an eye roll of his own before looking at her in concern.

Sighing, she smiled softly, "I'm feeling better by the minute." As he stared at her with that look still in his eyes she pressed further, her fingers going back to comb through his soft fur, "I'm fine. I'm perfectly fine because of _you_." She smiled brightly, "You did it Klaus."

He preened under her touch and praise before abruptly jumping to his four legs and curling up in the corner of the room.

Still too tired and week to turn her head, Caroline could hear his grunts of discomfort as his bones shifted back into place. His ragged breathing echoed through the cell for a few minutes before she heard the rustle of his clothing as he put them back on. In the next instant, his hesitant eyes and elated smile were hovering above her as he lifted and shifted her body onto his lap.

Watching him as he bit into his wrist while he held her tenderly in his grasp, Caroline couldn't help but utter her words once again in awe, "You did it."

Klaus grinned down to her, pulling his wrist from his mouth as he retracted his fangs, "I did." He brushed his lips gingerly over her forehead as he whispered, "It was all for you."

Pulling back slowly, their eyes locked onto one another's with the gravity of what had happened and all it implied being silently spoken between them.

Klaus was pulled from the moment as he felt his wound being to close. Placing his wrist to her mouth he ordered her firmly, "Drink."

She smirked, "Of course, my hero." She giggled before latching onto his wrist, taking a small testing gulp of his blood before sucking in a larger pull when she found she could keep it down this time.

Klaus sighed quietly in relief when he seen that she could keep his blood down before her words caught up to him causing him to huff in embarrassment, "While I am a great many things, _hero_ , is definitely not one of them. Besides," He grinned, "I lack the full head of the hero hair like our dear friend the Ripper."

Caroline's bubbly giggle against his skin brought a dimpled smile to his face.

Releasing his wrist from her mouth, Caroline swiped her tongue over her lips to catch the last of his blood before smiling up at him. "You are a great many things that's true. Terror, killer, all around pain in the ass," She softened her toned at the sulking look on his face. Her hand cupping his jaw, "But now, to me, _hero_ gets added to the list."

His face fell as he turned away from her delicate touch, "If it wasn't for me, you would never have been in this situation to start with."

Putting her hand back to his face, feeling his scruff rub over her palm as she turned him to look at her once again, "If I had told you I was coming this never would have happened. If I hadn't drunk so much over my fear of showing up at your door and having you not want me anymore those witches never would have gotten the best of me."

Klaus gasped as what she was saying sank in, "You really were coming for me? You weren't just here for my help with whatever predicament your friends got themselves stuck in once again?"

By the awestruck look in his eyes Caroline couldn't believe she ever thought this man would not still want her. Just as she could see he carried the very same insecurities that she herself had. Sliding her hand behind his neck, she used the leverage to pull him in closer. Their breath mingling as their noses brushed, "It was all for you Klaus. I wanted to give this last love thing a chance."

Their beaming smiles mirrored the other before their lips were tangling and moving sweetly together. Caroline arched her body up to be closer to him only to fall back down, dislodging her lips from his with a groan.

Klaus's hands instantly went to her face, brushing her hair off her eyes, "What's the matter Caroline? What happened?"

She grinned sheepishly up at him, nibbling on her lower lip as her fingers played with the ends of his hair, "I guess I need a little more time to recharge."

Klaus smiled tenderly, brushing his lips over hers before scooping her up into his arms, relishing in the warmth that washed through him as she curled herself trustingly into his protective embrace. "Sleep Sweetheart." He whispered in her ear as he walked them up the stairs, "When you awake you shall have all of New Orleans at your feet and we will talk more about this _chance_ you speak of."

He couldn't contain the happiness from his voice as he cleared the front door. Astutely ignoring the equal looks of shock and curiosity on his siblings faces, he gripped her sleeping form more firmly in his arms before flashing off towards his home.

He need a few moments alone to think over what all of this meant. Caroline was here, for him and not some plot for her friends' benefit. He had been forced to transition but had not harmed a single hair on her head. In fact, he had curled around her protectively and kept watch over her. His siblings had taken care of the witches in the house, but that did not mean there weren't more out there looking to continue the fight. But first…

First he had his sleeping Queen wrapped safely in his arms that needed a proper rest, in his bed, while he showered and devised a plan to make this chance she spoke of less of a chance and more of their reality.

.

.

.

* * *

I hope you all enjoyed this one! I know I said I'd have the Part Two up for _Chained to the Light_ and it's not there yet but I promise I will get back to work on it later this evening and (fingers crossed) have it ready for posting sometime tomorrow. Just in case you missed them, because I have updated every day since Friday, check back to Chapter's 29 and 30 for new drabbles. Thank you all so much for reading! Drop me a little line and tell me what you think.


	32. As the Reel Turns

_**As The Reel Turns. (NSFW)**_

My contribution for the 2017 Klaroline Vacay Gift Exchange. Written for melsbels/goldcaught.

AH- Klaus and Caroline are actors starring in a film together where things tend to get a little hot and heavy on-and off-the set. **_(The Parts written in Italics are part of the film.)_**

Pasties- an American term for flesh colored stickers/tape that cover the nipples.

Klaus and Caroline have been cast in the latest blockbuster film to hit the silver screen, with chemistry so on point it was hard to tell where their character's ended and they began. Was the deep seeded lust they felt for the other just a side effect from their roles? Or is it something more?

* * *

XXX

 _He had her pressed firmly against the wall behind the club, the deep bass of the speakers from inside vibrating against her back. His face so close that his harsh breath brushed a curl of her hair that had escaped her messy bun, tickling her cheek._

 _She hitched her leg over his hip, pulling him in with a purr of satisfaction as she felt his lower body firmly pressed within the cradle of her thighs. Extracting one of her hands from his hold over her head, knowing that either he had let her or was too distracted to care, she in turn took his left hand, slowly guiding it up her right thigh until his fingertips gripped harshly into the skin of her inner thigh just below her short leather skirt._

" _Go ahead," She whispered, her sultry blue eyes dared him as her tongue moistened her lips, "You know you want to." She smirked as he gulped, his throat bobbing. With a low groan, she rolled her hips against him, seeking to entice him further, "You know_ I _want you to,_ Inspector _."_

 _She felt his fingers twitch against her skin as she purred his title, inching further until she could feel the heat of his hand so close to her throbbing core, her face showing the impending victory._

 _Without warning his face changed, the war inside him written there clearly. He growled, pulling away, putting a few feet between them in hopes to clear his mind and shake his lust and want for her off._

 _With only her back touching the wall, her generous cleavage ripe for his eyes, she pouted as she teased him huskily, "Well then, maybe next time."_

 _And then in a blink she was gone. Leaving him standing alone in the darkened alley with his chest heaving as the lust cleared from his head._

" _Damnit." He cursed running a hand over his sweat covered face, groaning as he caught her scent on his fingers. His phone rang from his pocket, effectively distracting him from the scent he longed to taste._

" _What." He snapped harshly not bothering to see who was calling._

"Do you have her?" _The sinisterly eager voice of his commanding officer echoed through the line._

 _He smothered a groan, his eyes tracing the spot where she last stood, covering it with a growl, "Not yet."_

"Damnit Inspector! We need her brought in. Preferably before the FBI catches wind of her whereabouts."

" _I know quite well what it would mean for us if we catch her first." He rolled his eyes, "Though I'm still trying to figure out why you are so set on keeping this quiet and finding her first…" He let the question drag out, his newly formed suspicions of just why his commanding officer wanted her written on his face._

"And I figured you would have caught her by now. See that you find her or else I'll send someone who can and you'll find yourself working at a desk for the remainder of your career."

 _The line promptly went dead, a grim frown forming on his face as he pocketed his phone._

"And cut!" A loud buzzer echoed the director's announcement. "Splendid work everyone! A few more scenes and will be able to call this film a wrap."

Klaus let his eyes covertly flicker to where his co-star Caroline stood by the craft service table grabbing a quick snack. Nodding to the stagehand in thanks for the bottle of water he unscrewed the cap, tipping his head back to allow the ice-cold refreshment to cool his raging libido.

He had always prided himself how, unlike other actors, he maintained his personal and business affairs separate. When he had discovered he was working with Caroline Forbes on his latest project he had breathed a sigh of relief. She was known for having a lack of controversy surrounding her as well as her bubbly personality. It pleased him to know he could finally have one film under his belt that was not full of irrelevant and intensely irritating stories concocted by the paparazzi about his and the other cast members supposed whirlwind romance.

Not that he and Caroline didn't grace the cover of the tabloids. But, seeing as they were unable to gather any dirt or obtain any taken out of context photos of the two of them, all they ended up with was fluff pieces. So there were no hellish phone calls from his family demanding answers or press conferences to have to lay any rumors to rest.

"Alright everyone, enjoy your hour break. Next, we film the bar scene and afterwards it's a closed set. Those who are not needed are free to leave for the day." The Director's voice boomed over the sounds of the set being rearranged.

Klaus watched as Caroline left the set to head back to her trailer for costume and makeup changes. No, he grimaced, his hell was coming in the form of the final scenes to be shot. His blood heated at the thoughts and he cursed the cool waters lagging effect. Though to be honest, he was sure there was nothing in the world that could calm his raging libido when it came to shooting a love scene with Caroline Forbes. He could only hope he didn't make her too uncomfortable or embarrass himself in front of the entire crew.

XXX

Caroline tried to maintain her normal meditative state as she was poked and prodded with curling irons, hairspray and a barrage of makeup brushes and sponges.

She was failing miserably.

The chemistry between her and Klaus's characters was amazing. Off the charts even. Working with him, as well as the work done by the entire team, made this her favorite project to date. She could already see the shining, glossy metal of the Oscars they would no doubt be holding in their hands when this was all said and done.

But that's not what was messing with her normally well-balanced Chi. No. That award belonged to a very delicious package with dark blonde curls, plump raspberry lips, stunning gray eyes and a firm yet yielding body. It belonged to the phantom glide of his smooth yet calloused hands on her inner thigh. She felt her cheeks heat in embarrassment, holding out the hope that he had not noticed the heat radiating off her slick core when his fingers brushed the edge of her underwear.

If he had, she would be beyond mortified. Though judging by the semi-hard, growing length of him pressed against her thigh, he had his own cause to be embarrassed. She was _so_ glad to be a female. At least she had an easier time of hiding her arousal.

 _Arousal._

 _Klaus._

"Are you alright Caroline? Do you need me to turn the air up or get you some more food? You're looking a tad flush." Her hair stylist glanced at her in the mirror with a concerned press of his lips.

"I'm fine. Thanks though."

Caroline mentally groaned as her stylist continued putting the finishing touches on her hair. A group of tittering girls from craft services could be heard walking passed her trailer, gossiping about the upcoming scenes through the open door.

Flirting. Dancing. _Sex._

Never was she more thankful for the disclosure agreement her agent had the entire staff sign at the start of this project.

As a rule of thumb, and to lessen the awkward discomfiture, any time Caroline shot scenes that would require her to be semi-nude there were only a select few people allowed on set.

She never had these types of reactions with her co-stars before. Especially with at least twenty sets of eyes watching the entire time. With both her and Klaus's reactions to each other, regardless of the people watching, it left her nervously wondering just how the next two scenes would play out.

XXX

 _He sat at the dimly light hole-in-the-wall bar, sipping his drink as the bartender wiped down the counter._

" _Rough night?"_

 _He glanced up at the bartender, "You could say that. Though rough few weeks is more like it."_

" _So, then it's work problems that brings you here, is it Inspector?"_

 _He cringed at the raspy voice of the female bartender calling him by his titled, leveling her with a cold glare, "I like the place because of the anonymity it offers."_

" _Right, sorry." She winced before glancing at the new customer sliding into the stool, "What can I get you Honey?"_

" _I'll have what he's having." She grinned excitedly as the Inspector's head shot up. "_ Inspector _."_

 _His eyes fluttered at the purring sound of her voice, his hands quickly patting down his pockets, kicking himself when he realized he left his badge, gun and cuffs at home. "A bit daring of you to show your face, is it not Sweetheart?" He smirked trying to cover up the situation he found himself in, wondering if he could bluff his way into making her think he was armed. Though by the was her eyes glittered he had no doubts that she knew he was unarmed._

 _She hummed, nodding her head to the bartender and gulping down her drink in one fail swoop. Her long glorious blonde curls flowing freely around her as she turned to face him, licking her lips and cocking her head to the side, "How about an even better dare, hmm?"_

 _His mouth fell opened slightly at the sultry tone in her voice. His eyes tracing over the prominent line of her cleavage and down over her curves wrapped in the short, tight black dress. "What do you have in mind?" The low husky tone of his voice doing little to hide his curiosity and impending arousal._

" _Well," She drawled, sliding her hand firmly over his jean covered thigh, "You're off-duty and I'm just here enjoying a drink. So…" Her eyes sparkled with mischief._

 _He arched an eyebrow, "So?"_

 _Without answering she stood, pressing her body against his side, licking the shell of his ear as she whispered, "Dance with me."_

 _His eyes fell shut, his tongue swiping over his lips as her breath ruffled his hair, "Just one dance?" She pulled back with a smirk offering her hand to him, "I won't bite, Inspector." Though the curl of her full, red painted lips and heated sparkle in her eyes said otherwise._

 _Seemingly hypnotized he stood, taking her hand and allowing her to lead him towards the dancefloor._

 _The song suddenly changed as if by design into a slow, heavy pulsating beat. She held his eyes captive as she slowly stepped in close until she was flush against his body. Her hands gliding with a delicate touch over his chest to wrap around the back of his neck where her fingernails scratched playfully._

 _His hands slide slowly down her sides to where they fit the curve of her hips as if they had been made for him alone. Her breath caught as he purposefully slid his knee between her thighs, pulling her firmly against him as they began to move._

 _Their cheeks flushed, their bodies rolling together without an inch between them as if they were on satin sheets instead of a crowded dancefloor. Her hot breath tickled the side of his neck, his hand slowly moving over her flared hip, splaying fully against her rounded cheek bringing a delicious yet stunned gasp from her lips._

 _She glanced at him with uncertainty, her perfect white teeth nibbling into her plump lower lip causing his eyes to flare as they flitted searchingly between said lip and her eyes._

 _The look of want pouring from her gorgeous blue eyes was enough permission. His head lowered and in one fail swoop his lips were fused with hers. Their tongues met as he bent her body slightly back, her lush breasts teasing him through far too many layers of fabric. Her legs trembling around his thigh._

 _Both were left panting when he pulled back, resting his forehead against hers, their eyes searching the other's before he rumbled, "How about we get out of here?"_

 _Her eyes fluttered shut with a throaty moan, "Finally."_

XXX

The crew was busy closing down the set as Klaus and Caroline stood beside the director watching the footage captured during the Master Shot of the love scene they had just finished filming. Both sipping from their bottled water, pointedly trying to ignore the other's flushed cheeks and short black robes as well as their nearly naked bodies writhing together on the small screen.

"This turned out perfect!" The director announced in excitement. "Absolutely brilliant. I was a little worried over the terms of your contract Caroline, but filming the love scene as a Master Shot instead of the nonstop direction proved to be my best one yet!" He chortled in glee.

Caroline offered him an uncomfortable grin as the screen played on, showcasing her in nothing but unnoticeable pasties riding Klaus who wore nothing but a flesh colored triangle over his well-endowed erection. Shifting on her feet she grimaced at the wetness sliding between her thighs.

"Well if that's all for today?" Caroline let the question hang, wanting nothing more than to hear she could escape from this mortifying torture. She had felt lust and want in public before but never dreamed of it happening on set with cameras rolling.

The director waved his hand, not looking away from the screen where his eyes critiqued their movements. His mind already deciding on what to cut and where to break the film.

Breathing a quiet sigh of relief, Caroline turned to leave but not before her eyes caught sight of Klaus as he stood hunched over the back of a chair, his eyes still holding the slight fire in them as they had while filming. His lips curved into a comforting grin, a grin that let her know he understood. That he too felt all that she had and was. That was all it took for the embarrassment to drift away, and instead, in its place her nipples pebbled uncomfortably beneath the pasties. Giving him a quick reassuring smile she turned and fled, trying her best not to run like her unsteady legs longed for her to do.

But in which direction, away from him or towards him, she couldn't be too sure.

XXX

Everyone had gone for the evening, the only souls left on the lot were him, the security guards and judging from the lights pouring out of the trailer windows, Caroline.

It took all of two seconds before Klaus's boots were scraping against the pavement. He had to know. He had to know if she was just that good of an actress and chose not to call attention to his obvious arousal, therefore causing him immense embarrassment or if she truly wanted him as much as he did her. He could have sworn her reactions to him were not all scripted, and if they weren't he longed to do something about it, no matter what it takes.

Inhaling a deep steadying breath, Klaus raised his fist giving a gentle knock on her door.

Her freshly showered scent wrapped around him as the door flew open showing her smiling face. His eyes covertly scanning her delectable form wrapped in a short sundress with buttons down it's center that he wished to rip off with his teeth. Her natural blonde curls cascading around her shoulders sent visions of it wrapped around his fist as her pretty mouth was wrapped around his…

"Klaus. Hey. Come on in."

His eyes narrowed slightly, his mind wondering if he was imagining the slight blush on her cheeks and the tremor in her voice as he smiled and brushed past her before she closed the door.

"I didn't know anyone else was still here." She smiled as she nervously tucked her hair behind her ear.

"Neither did I." He smiled soothingly back to her, "I was on my way out when I noticed your lights still on."

"Yeah after the long day we had I figured I'd just shower here that way I can just grab a bite to eat on the way home and curl up on the couch." Caroline tired not to let the vision of Klaus sitting on said couch with her, or under her, from forming.

Klaus licked his lips and pounced on his opening, asking hesitantly, "I was planning to do the same. Maybe we could grab some food together?" They had both been so careful not to be seen in public alone in case anyone happened to misinterpret two friend and co-stars for something more. Though he longed for it to be something more.

"I'm sure the paparazzi would love that." Caroline scoffed dryly with an eyeroll.

"Well, it _is_ our last day." Klaus pressed, "Technically we are no longer working together outside of the few remaining photo shoots and publicity outings."

He could see the temptation swirling in her stunning blue eyes.

"Come on Caroline. Take a chance." His voice lowered along with his chin, "I dare you."

It wasn't until that moment they both realized how close they stood together in the doorway of her trailer, their bodies just shy of brushing together with each breath.

"Well it is our last day and all and I am…" her voice dropped as her hand slowly slid under his jacket tracing against his firm chest, "famished."

The touch, even as small as it was, was enough to send a raging fire through his veins. Seeing the heat flare in his eyes made Caroline instantly aware that she was unconsciously touching him. Pulling her hand back with a clearing of her throat, she tucked her stubborn hair behind her ear, "Right. Well, let me just grab my purse." She pointed over his shoulder where her purse sat on the high counter behind him.

Klaus nodded his head, attempting to reign in the desire to pull her into his arms and slake this oppressing thirst he held for her. He took a step to his right to move out of her way at the same moment she walked to her left, sending their bodies colliding together as their legs entangled. Seeing that Caroline was falling, Klaus wrapped an arm around her lower back, yanking her into him as his other hand braced against the wall behind her next to her head.

Their eyes locked, their chests brushing with every panted breath. Her purse, the film and all thoughts of food left them as the thick sexual tension finally came bursting to the forefront.

Caroline's hands left his shoulders she was gripping for balance, cupping the sides of his neck, pulling him down to crash her full lips to his.

Klaus groaned on contact. This was no scripted kiss with dozens of others watching. This was Caroline, _Caroline_ , pouring every ounce of passion she had held onto so tightly before. He had thought her to be a glorious kisser while they performed, now he scoffed at the paltry conclusion.

She was magnificent.

Yet he did not stand idly by. Klaus tilted his head, forcing his tongue into her mouth and giving as good as he got as his body pressed deeply into hers.

Caroline felt as if every nerve ending in her body was on fire. She groaned as his arousal pressed against her at just the right angle. Never in her life had she wanted anyone as much as she wanted him. She had fought against it, tried to deny it by claiming, if only to herself, that it was only her connecting with her character. As his hand slide up her side from her hip to cup and squeeze her breast she realized that she had never connected with any of her other characters quite like this before.

Her nipple pebbled under the covering of her bra and light sundress at the caress of his hand as his lower body pressed further against her, rolling his hips and letting her feel just how much he wanted her.

Sliding her hands down his neck as their lips and tongues continued to duel, she gripped his leather jacket, forcefully tugging it down and off him, letting it fall to the floor with a thump.

Klaus groaned at her eagerness as he trailed a line of wet open-mouthed kisses down the delicate slope of her neck, his hand brushing the strap of her dress down her left shoulder. Her breath hitched and her hips jolted as he found a particularly sensitive spot on her lower neck. Klaus groaned in response, paying more attention to the area as his own hips rolling roughly against her center.

She felt him everywhere but not nearly enough of him. Her fingers grappled with his shirt, tugging it up his body, forcing him pull back from her neck as she whipped it over his head, letting it fall to the floor.

With his jaw clenched, Klaus's breath hissed through his teeth at the sultry haze in Caroline's eyes as the raked over his exposed, muscular torso. He gave her a brief moment to take in his upper body before his lips attacked hers once again as his fingers nimbly worked on the buttons lining the center of her dress.

Caroline shivered as his fingertips brushed the fabric away, pulling her arms from the straps she let it fall forgotten to her waist. His body pressed closer to hers, his hands gliding down her body to the backs of her thighs. Understanding his intent, and needing to be closer to him, she wrapped her arms around his neck just as he picked her up, entwining her legs around his jean clad hips as he carried her further into her trailer, setting her to her makeup counter.

The feel of his lips leaving hers, placing scorching kisses to her neck once again left her panting. Their hips grinding together as she reached behind her back to unclasp her bra, whipping it off in a fury, needing to feel her nipples scraping against his chest for the first time without the barrier of the pasties. She purred contently at the first contact with Klaus nipping at her neck in response as his hand slid over her thigh, pushing the dress up as he went.

His fingers easily slipped beneath the barrier of her panties, rubbing over her soft, thin patch of hair to slid further down. The silky wet heat of her core gave him pause, lifting his head to sear her with his steel gaze, his voice a growling rumble, "So _wet_ , love."

Her eyes blazed with pure fire as she licked her lips, her hands racing down to his jeans as he began pumping his finger inside her heated depths, his thumb making tight circles over her swollen nub. Caroline's head fell back against the mirror, her mouth trembling at the onslaught of pleasure his talented hand brought her. Deftly she unbuckled his belt, leaving it to hang open as she unsnapped the button and yanking down the zipper of his jeans. Using her knees that were braced on either side of his hips, she pushed his jeans down to rest on his upper thighs, shifting her body to the edge of the countertop.

His forehead dropped to her shoulder with a raspy groan as her delicate hand wrapped around his pulsating shaft, only to snap back up to look at her pleadingly as he felt her direct it towards where his fingers still played within her.

"Caroline, wait."

With a shake of her head, sending her hair flying around her, Caroline grabbed his wrist pulling his hand out from her core and laying it to her thigh. Pulling her panties aside, she rubbed the tip of his member against her silken lower lips. Panting at the feeling, her lust filled eyed stared at him, "I think we've had enough foreplay."

Klaus was gone. Her words, her kiss swollen lips, her hand wrapped around him gliding the tip of his shaft against her. The instant she made another downward pass, he bucked his hips, pushing his shaft into her core and seating himself there deeply.

Their eyes fell shut, mutual sighs of bliss falling from their lips as they held still. Caroline fluttered her eyes open to find Klaus staring at her, the muscle jumping in his flushed cheek at his effort to hold still and wait for her signal.

Caroline smirked deviously as she tilted her hips, her inner walls clenching tightly around his rigid member, her hand skating around his lower back to rest heavily against it.

All signs pointed him in the direction of hot, fast and deep sex. Testing his theory, and because he could no longer hold back, he pulled his shaft out of her until just the tip remained. His eyes pierced hers for the split second as he held there before thrusting back into her swiftly.

Her hand slipped with the force of his thrust, landing on chiseled flesh of his ass, nails digging in as she keened, "Fuck yes."

He set a punishing yet pleasurable pace. Their hips colliding, his pelvis rubbing deliciously against her swollen, throbbing nub as his belt clinked and their sweat covered skin slapped.

His hips began to roll with every downward thrust sending a livewire of intense yearning through her body. His husky groans and heated breath coasted over her neck, her nipples rasping against his chest adding to the fire deep within her core.

"Just like that. Fuck-Klaus."

It was all too much. Her raspy cries of pleasure, the scorching, wet depths of her, her nearly naked body wrapped around his combined with her fingers with their death grip on his hair caused him to snap.

With a low growl, he laced his arms beneath her knees, shifting her hips so they hung off the edge of the counter. He widened his legs as far as the jeans still wrapped around his thighs would allow, bending down slightly he began thrusting his hips in earnest. His eyes transfixed on her bouncing breasts as she threw her head back with a cracking scream of his name.

"Fuck-Caroline."

His head bent towards her breast, his tongue flicking over her hardened nipple before sucking the delectable bead into the hot cavern of his mouth.

Caroline's body began to shake and tremble, with her back arched she linked her hands behind his neck, holding on tightly as she felt her climax building in such an intensity that she had never experienced before. Her toes curled, her muscles locked, her entire body vibrated as a litany of, "Fuck! Fuck! Klaus!" Spilled from her lips.

Klaus snarled against her breast, his throat closing as he felt his end nearing and by the way Caroline's body was reacting, her inner walls heating even more he knew she was just as close. Not wanting to miss the look on her face as _he_ made her reach her peak, he lifted his head pulling her even closer as his lower half continued to pound into her willing body.

"Look at me." He demanded through his clenched teeth.

Her dazed blue eyes opened, pupils blown as they locked onto his, her mouth hanging open as she panted, gripping his hair even tighter.

His lips brushed her gently, which was strangely tender as his hips continued their merciless movements. She sighed into the kiss, her body tightly wound so tightly she only needed a little something more to snap. Only she had no clue just what that something was. Until his steely eyes flared in desire and his low rumbling voice uttered, "Come for me Caroline. Now."

Her mouth dropped open with a silent scream, her blue eyes widened and her body from head to chest flushed a beautiful red. Klaus held on tightly to her trembling, squirming body as his thrusts became erratic.

He thought her to be a magnificent kisser, yet when she came in his arms she became a Goddess. A Goddess he would gladly worship both day and night. A Goddess he _would_ worship again and again if he had anything to say about it.

Her inner walls clamped down on his thick member, pulsating around him as her unrestrained ecstasy flooded around him, bring forth his own climactic end with a shaky groan of her name.

Caroline's body slumped back against the mirror with Klaus falling to rest his head on her heaving chest, listening to her pounding heart as their bodies still trembling in the aftermath of their pleasure.

Carefully Klaus let her legs drop to his sides, Caroline felt the cool air of the trailer hit her legs making her wonder just when she had kicked her shoes off. Deciding it didn't matter, she began carding her fingers through Klaus's sweat-dampened hair, smiling gently at his murmur of contentment.

Klaus wanted to lift his head, to look at her pleasure soaked face, yet he didn't have the strength to move. He was lucky he could still stand; his legs were on shaky ground as it was. Instead he let his fingers drawn nonsensical patterns over her smooth skin, taking a small pleasure in the fact that he was touching her, _alone_ , with no other person or camera in sight.

A low rumble sounded from her stomach, making Caroline giggle in embarrassment. The sound was music to his ears.

"We forgot about food." She whispered as he tilted his head to look at her, "Sorry, I'm pretty hungry."

Klaus hummed as he began spreading kisses just below her breasts, using his hand to pull her dress further down her torso past her bellybutton, "Yes I find myself rather famished as well," his eyes shot up to gaze as her as his tongue dipped into her navel, "though the meal I crave is something else entirely." His warm breath gliding over the skin of her abdomen caused her to gasp as thoughts of food slowly started drifting away. "I have often wondered just how you would taste on my tongue. May I finally find out Caroline?"

"You're insatiable, aren't you?" She giggled.

"When it comes to you? Always. I've spent far too long alone with you in my fantasies at night. Now that I have you within my grasp I don't plan on letting you escape until they are all fulfilled to my utmost contentment. And Caroline?" His voice sang her name as his lips curved into a wicked smirk, "I do not foresee that happening for quite some time, if ever."

Her eyes widened as his declaration. She opened her mouth to respond, only to snap it closed with a blush as her stomach rumbled yet again. "Sorry. All I had was craft service today."

Regaining the feeling in his legs, Klaus slowly stood, pulling up his pants yet leaving his belt unbuckled before assisting her off the counter. He tenderly brushed her hair behind her ear, leaning down for a soft kiss, "We had better see you fed, Love. You'll need your strength for what I have planned."

"Oh?" She smirked with a cocked eyebrow, "What about what _I_ have planned for _you_?"

Klaus shook his head, "I let you take the lead this time. Now it's my turn. I have plans to see, kiss and touch every inch of your glorious skin. To worship your breathtaking body as the Goddess you are."

He took delight in the shivers his words caused, a wicked smirk overtaking his lips, "I will not stop until you are splayed out, boneless and utterly satisfied, on my sheets."

Caroline gulped down the groan that threatened to leave her lips. Pressing her still half naked form to his she swiped her tongue over his neck, reveling in the gasp that left him as she bit down gently before whispering in his ear, "Then you better see me fed, Klaus. Sounds like we have a long and busy night ahead of us." She rolled her hips against his, feeling his shaft begin to harden before she danced her way out of his arms and began fixing her clothing.

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I hope you all enjoyed!

Quick note for those of you that did not see it in my AN at the end of the latest chapter of _The Girl_.

THANK YOU!

In this year's Klaroline Awards I was nominated in three categories and, thanks to all of you wonderful people, I won one! YAY!

 _Warrior's Welcome (found in Chapter 28)-_ Was nominated for Best Smut Drabble.

 _Songs of the Moment-_ Was nominated for Best Drabble Series

 _Above All Else-_ Was nominated and _WON_ Best Completed Story.

So again, thank you all so so much! It was an honor to be nominated and then for us to pull a win?! WOW!

Also, I am currently working on Chapter 3 for _Above It All_. The goal is to have it posted by next Friday the 15th. With summer over and the kiddos back in school, I have more time to focus on my writing. I have a planner and I am scheduling my writing out and everything! LOL


	33. Curse of a Lonely Heart

**Curse of a Lonely Heart**

 **Wednesday, October 18 – AU Week: Sci-Fi and Post Apocalypse**

This is a light take on Sci-Fi. I went with the general meaning of light Sci-Fi which is to use elements of science and/or technology.

In this story Klaus is an immortal hybrid- a vampire/warlock.

Disclaimer: I do not own TVD. The phrases and poems used in this story by other authors are not mine and are only used to add to the story.

I hope you enjoy!

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XXX

Over the centuries Klaus watched as treasured friends and close companions perished. He watched the ever shifting and changing of time and fashion. As witchcraft was persecuted, no longer was it safe to practice openly and, at times, even behind closed doors. Once revered and celebrated, it was replaced by dark superstitions and the wording of many men from their one God in lieu of one man and many Gods. As time went on, witchcraft changed yet again as it was labeled trickery by those fooled by a sleight of hand here and the turn of the dice there. Then witchcraft and the unexplained supernatural were replaced the latest time by that which astounded him. Men with far greater minds than he, created magic through elements and wires, steel and fire. They called it, technology and science.

As a creature who lived too many lifetimes to count, alone in a world that only continued to grow and shift, he drank this knowledge in. Absorbed it like a sponge, sifting through it like a baker does flour, until he was left with only the best of the knowledge available.

And then he did the unthinkable.

Where the craft was strictly against and unable to create life, to give a dying person a chance to live again, science and technology flourished giving him the means necessary.

In his workshop he scraped, salvaged, produced and reproduced. Welding metal, carving bone like structures out of the toughest of materials on earth. The internet, such a wonderful yet deadly tool, one that could turn the softest of persons into the cruelest around, offered him the ease to stay in his shop as he ordered things he would be frowned upon, even in such a day of age. Real human hair came by the boxes. Blondes, red, browns and blacks. Soft, wavy, curly, and straight.

Other items came from the seeder side of the web. The darker corners that one had to know not only how to get to but how to maintain access to without being caught.

Medical machines, organs, finger and toe nails, teeth, eyes. At times it turned his stomach to think on what he was doing but then only a small portion of his many long excruciating lonely years would flash before his eyes pushing him further towards his purpose. If he could accomplish this, his greatest desire would come to pass.

He would no longer be alone.

He could do what the craft strictly forbid by applying the loophole of modern science. At the exact moment when he had failed time and time again, breathing new life into a form by ways of magics, only to have the first breath drawn and magic take it all back. He could now use science to breathe life back into a humanoid form.

At least that was his theory, worse still, his hope.

XXX

After failing, he tore apart his entire lab and home in a fit of rage, burning it all to the ground and left. Klaus wandered from State to State, killing recklessly and drowning his sorrows in blood. Until one day, as if by accident or Fate, he stumbled upon a vast stretch of land high within the Appalachian Mountain range. His bloodlust and rage cleared the moment he stood there, surrounded by the greatness of nature, feeling an odd sense of belonging.

His drive and will to succeed came rushing back, filling him with a purpose that all the killings and blood could never hope to imagine.

It was time to rebuild.

It was time to start anew.

It was time to try again.

XXX

Combining all the efforts of his past failures and successes, it took Klaus less time to rebuild and restock as previous endeavors had. He kept things simple this time around, a small modest cabin with a basement to hold his newly acquired equipment. He felt a tingling within his body with every step forward he made. This would be the time it worked, he could feel it. This would be the time he created someone like him, someone to belong to, someone that would never leave him. This time he would not visit the darker side of things, he would not attempt to raise the dead, he would not build from scratch. This time he would find someone on the brink of death and at the exact right moment, he would breathe new life into them.

Klaus stalked the local hospitals, gathering supplies and searching endlessly for just the right subject. Time was closing in on him, the celestial event he wished to draw power and energy from was less than a month away.

That was when he found her.

A cancer patient with a brain tumor and on life support. She had been on her way to her treatments with both her parents when they had been involved in a horrible car accident. Both her parents were killed on impact, while she was left struggling to survive. Klaus hid in the shadows, watching and waiting for weeks for other family members or friends to arrive. No one came. He compelled the nurses and doctors, discovering that she had no living relatives that they were aware of and no friends had ever come to see her in the entire time she had been there. They told him how her body was shutting down and was no longer responding to any of her treatments, it was only a matter of time now before she passed.

She was the perfect candidate. Yet that was not what drew him in from the start. It was her long blonde hair; even dull with her condition he knew it would shine like the sun. It was her fair skin that he knew would blush with life. It was her unresponsive blue eyes that he knew would sparkle with emotions. She reminded him so much of the sister he had long ago lost. The sibling he missed most of all. It was as if fate and laid her in his path, gifting her to him and him to her. He could save her just as she would save him. They would be a family, she would live once more and neither would ever be alone again.

Klaus readied his cabin, outfitting the living room with all the equipment needed to keep her alive until that final moment. He took all the necessary precautions to ensure that the rest of the world would believe she had died peacefully in the hospital before spiriting her away to the cabin and with every ounce of hope he had, their new life together.

XXX

It was always assumed that the moon was what fueled the magic of a spell, while true, the sun also held its fiery rewards. But when combined in a celestial event, limits became limitless and unbounded. He had cursed Fate for their design with him, had ranted and raved after each loved one died and ceased to be, after each failed attempt at taking his own life. But as the full solar eclipse drew near, his hair raised on his arms, his fangs itched to sink into flesh, his magic flowed like an electrical current in his blood, and he once again felt the power of Fate's design. The curse of his lonely heart would be broken when day turned to night and back again in a matter of a blink of an eye.

He felt stronger than he had ever felt before, he felt a connection that was long absent from his life. His eyes shifted from grey to red as he conducted the spell, sensing that it must have been fate that lead him here; to this point, to his thirst for knowledge, to this cabin in the mountains and its remote location that sat directly in the path of the solar eclipse at the exact moment he would complete his life's work. To the hospital that held her, where she had been waiting for him as much as he had been searching for her.

A tube pumped his blood into her body, he poured a mixture down her throat as he drank it as well. Seconds before the full shadow of the moon fell over the cabin he flipped the machine giving her air off, chanting the spell as her breathing stopped and her heart flatlined.

His breath hissed through his teeth, waiting and watching for any sign of life from her. Light began to spill across the land, a single ray shining through the window making its way towards the bed she laid on. Klaus held his breath as the ray moved across her body, the faint beat of her heart thudded softly in the room before it pounded like a rapid drum. Her eyes flew open the instant she sucked in her first breath.

He inched closer to the bed, leaning over her in anticipation. This was the moment of truth, the moment of failure of success. Their eyes locked, one filled with dreaded hope while the other with confusion. Suddenly her body bowed, an ear-piercing scream let loose form her lungs before she flashed off the table, cowering and trembling in a corner of the room.

Klaus couldn't help but think that this was a good sign. He had never seen them live past that first breath. It had worked! By all the Gods! It had worked! His relief and excitement shone through on his face as he slowly edged closer to her, kneeling before her as she curled her body against the wall in fear.

"Shh, it's okay. It's okay. I'm here, you're safe." The softness of his voice seemed to calm her, leaning in he slowly pulled her onto his lap, holding her as he often used to do with his sister when she was frightened of a storm. Pressing her head gently to his shoulder, he soothed her with soft tones as he carded his fingers through her hair, "I've got you Caroline, all will be well. We are together and I will always keep you safe."

Her trusting blue eyes gazed up at him, her confusion clearly written within them. Slowly he touched the center of her chest and spoke, "Caroline." Before mimicking the gesture to himself, "Klaus."

Her nose scrunched adorably, her mind working and processing as he continued repeating their names and that she was safe. Her arm shakily rose, her hand touching her chest as she whispered clumsily, "Caroline." At his beaming smile she grinned, reaching for his chest, "Klaus."

"Very good, sweetheart." He praised her much to her delight causing her to curl further into his arms.

"Caroline. Klaus. Safe."

Klaus rested his cheek to the top of her head, "That's right, I will always keep you safe." A warm, protective feeling swelled within him as he whispered, "Always and forever. Happy birthday Caroline."

XXX

Months passed by, it had taken some time for Caroline to adjust to her new life. Klaus taught her how to walk, how to talk, how to read and write. She was determined and inquisitive by nature making her a quick study and bringing him pride. She drank in all the knowledge she could, so much so that he turned the small study in their remote cabin into a library just for her. He had started by reading simple and easy to follow books, but gradually the tables turned and she was the one reading complexed literature to him.

While Caroline's mind continued to blossom, so did her abilities. They were subtle, but enough to give him cause for relief that she held small bits of magic and vampire qualities within her. If she was angered or felt any intense emotion, candles would flicker or items on the shelves would rattle. She was strong, not nearly as strong as he, but strong enough to lift and carry the furniture in the house without an ounce of help from him when she felt the need for a change. She was fast enough that he only had to hold back a little when they would go off exploring the mountains and forest surrounding them, flashing through the trees quicker than any human could hope to see.

Even through all her progress, Klaus did have moments of concern. Caroline didn't need blood to survive, she needed human food as a necessity rather than the luxury as it was for him. The few times he experimented and spiked her drink with human blood she would curl her lip in disgust, claiming the taste was off. His constant fretting over her possible immortality kept him up most nights, running over the spell hour after hour, night after night, trying desperately to find the answer he sought.

Would she live forever by his side? Or like all those he had come to care for, would she too leave him to a lonely life of solitude brought on by death?

His concern was answered when her curiosity turned towards the kitchen. Klaus was making their evening meal when she suddenly closed her sketchbook and flashed beside him, bouncing on her feet as she begged to help. He chuckled lightheartedly at her childish ways but instructed her on how to chop the vegetables.

A few minutes of blissful companionship passed, the rhythmic sound of her chopping flashing him back to the times he would assist his sister with the meal preparations on the rare occasions when their Mother had taken ill. Klaus flicked his eyes to see the blonde hair of Caroline and was filled with a warmth he had not felt in centuries. The feeling of doing some mundane task with another person, of someone who could take the place of his favorite sibling he thought forever lost to him.

His peaceful interlude was broken with her sharp cry and the scent of blood rushing to his senses. Flashing to her side within an instant, he took her bleeding hand in his, leading her to the sink to wash the blood off. Only to discover the cut was not healing.

Caroline's bubbling giggle drew his panic-struck eyes to her, "It's only a cut Klaus. It will heal in a few days."

Numbly he dropped her hand, watching with ashen cheeks as she pulled out the First Aid kit he had no idea was under the sink to place a bandage on her thumb.

"See? Good as new!" She beamed, wiggling her thumb in the air, "No stop looking as pale as a statue and help me finish dinner."

Klaus flashed in a reserved panic as she went to pick the knife up once more, ushering her towards the cupboard, "We have plenty of vegetables for our fajitas, why don't you set the table Sweetheart."

"You worry too much." She smiled sweetly, patting him on the side of his face, "But if it will take that God-awful color out of your cheeks then fine, I'll go set the table."

Her golden curls bounced in time with her lively steps as she set about grabbing the needed dishes and cutlery before flouncing out of the room. His mouth was dry and tasted of ash as a lead weight settled within his breast.

She did not heal.

He could still smell the fresh blood beading beneath the bandage, rushing through his nostrils like a vicious poison. The reality of everything settling within him like a curse. While she had attributes of both a witch and a vampire, she was not immortal. Which meant she could die.

XXX

Klaus tried his best to remain unaffected by the new knowledge that she would leave him as all others before her had. He tried to tell himself that any time spent with her was a blessing, another moment he was not infinitely and utterly alone. That having another chance at having a sister running about was better than none at all.

Some days he failed miserably, some days he fell quiet or rude causing Caroline to act out or try harder to gain his attention. Often his guilt of bringing her life only to have no way of granting her eternity would win out and he would be his normal self with her again. Those days were as beautiful as they were heartbreaking, for while he gained more memories to cherish it was yet another day of her short life gone.

On one such night after a day of allowing himself to enjoy her company, she was tucked into her bed with Klaus sitting in his cushioned chair beside her, Caroline thoughtfully closed the book she had chosen on the wildlife found in their area. Her deep looks of contemplation always thrilled him, for he knew whatever would follow would be a question that would spark endless conversation.

She began as she often did, staring off into space as if her mind was trying to strategically put together the pieces of a puzzle. "Plants grow from seeds, animals are born…" Her large blue eyes looked lost as they focused on him, "So where did I come from? Did you find me and save me from some terrible fate? I read about how a person's mind who suffer untold trauma will shut down and block out such memories. Is that why I can't remember more than being here with you? Did I have a family? Do they know I am alive?"

Klaus felt his breath leave his lungs, how to answer such question. How did he begin to explain to her how and why she was here? That he had brought her to life because he wanted to fill the void of being alone. That he missed his little sister most of all and sought to recreate her image with her. How to explain that while it had all started as a means to build himself a family that he found odd moments here and there when he looked and felt towards her more than a brother should to an, for all intents and purposes, adoptive sister.

Knowing she was awaiting his answer, and knowing it was not the time to express just how she came to be, Klaus gazed into her eyes with nothing but honesty and raw emotions swirling within them, "I am your family Caroline."

Caroline gasped, her own eyes shining with emotions that she clearly did not understand. Breaking the moment, he smirked playfully, "Do you detest the idea that much, Sweetheart?"

"No!" She rushed out, sitting up to grab hold of his hand with a gentle squeeze before bashfully saying, "I quite like being your family and having you as mine."

The way his thumb ran over the skin of her knuckles so softly and the tender, happy gaze in his eyes as he leaned down to kiss her forehead before tucking her back into bed caused all sorts of new and untapped emotions to rile up within her long into the night. Fueling her dreams with shining grey eyes, gentle innocent touches, sweet smiles and deep soft laughter.

The dreams and the look in his eyes perturbed her for days. Sending her on a journey through his scores of books, reading and reading until one day she all but flew from the study with her classic exuberance and shining eye of when she discovered something new.

Klaus excitedly set his sketchbook aside, placing his pencil carefully on top as he looked to her with a wide grin, awaiting the moment she would speak. Knowing that once she did her precious rambling would start. These were the moments he cherished most of all, having the chance to see inside her lovely mind.

"Love!" She declared strongly with a beaming grin, "I love you!"

His indulgent smile fell flat from his chiseled face, "What?"

"I love you and you love me! See!" She held out the dictionary for him to read along, "Love, noun; an intense feeling of deep affection. A person or thing that one loves. Verb; feel a deep romantic or sexual attachment to someone."

Klaus sputtered the instant the word, sexual, passed through her cherry lips. Placing a mocking yet stern mask upon his face, he waved her off, "Love is a weakness, Caroline. Love is nothing but made up drivel by weak minded fools."

Caroline scoffed, "Well that's a jaded way of looking at things."

"It has gotten me through countless years and has not failed me yet." He cringed at the lie, even if she failed to catch it or even understand it. Love was what had pushed him to create her, now look where he was. Fighting feelings he longed to have yet couldn't not keep, for he could not keep her.

Caroline snarled, slamming the dictionary to the coffee table and flung her notebook open, clearing her throat as she began, " _I fell in love with her courage, her sincerity and her flaming self respect. And it's these things I'd believe in, even if the whole world indulged in wild suspicions that she wasn't all she should be. I love her. And that is the beginning of everything._ F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote such a thing, an author you have told me a million times was worth every word he has written."

Her righteous anger combined with the words she spoke, words that so clearly described her in his own eyes, caused a tugging within his breast. Only the thought of her dying shriveled it down once again, "A wise man yes, still I stand by my point. Not to mention the man was a raging alcoholic, I would know, I shared a few drinks with the man in the twenties and he could drink even me under the table."

"Okay, fine. _We would be together and have our books and at night be warm in bed together with the windows open and the stars bright._ "

"While Hemingway was an educated man, he was an awful dullard." Klaus smirked, he always enjoyed getting a rise out of her. And by all accounts it had worked as she began rattling off quotes and authors she had found.

" _I've never had a moments doubt. I love you. I believe in you completely. You are my dearest one. My reason for life,_ Ian McEwan. _For a few seconds they looked silently into each other's eyes, and the distant and impossible suddenly became near, possible and inevitable,_ Leo Tolstoy. _If I had a flower for every time I thought of you, I could walk in my garden forever,_ Alfred Lord Tennyson. _The only one you need in your life is that person who shows you he needs you in his_ , Oscar Wilde." Her blue eyes shined as if she dared him to deny the words she had searched out that spoke so clearly of them.

But deny her he must.

With a heavy heart he smirked devilishly, "Hacks. Every, last one."

"Oh yeah! Well what about your favorite poet, hmm? Edgar Allen Poe?" She straightened her shoulders as she began once more, " _Sometimes I'm terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants. The way it stops and starts._ Or this one, _There are chords in the hearts of the most reckless which cannot be touched without emotions._ "

Candles flickered behind her on the mantle as she read the next poem,

" _Romance, who loves to nod and sing,_

 _With drowsy head and folded wing,_

 _Among the green leaves as they shake_

 _Far down within some shadowy lake,_

 _To me a painted paroquet_

 _Hath been- a most familiar bird-_

 _Taught me my alphabet to say-_

 _To lisp my very earliest word_

 _While in the wild woods I lie,_

 _A child- with the most knowing eye._ "

Catching the light sheen of tears within his eyes, Caroline beseeched him with open palms, "How can something that so many authors have written wonderful stories and sonnets over be a weakness?"

Klaus clenched his jaw, refusing to acknowledge her.

"Come on Klaus. Please. You said we are family, that we only have and need each other. So why can't you just admit that you love me?"

Letting his rage that he held in such rigid restraint around her flow through he sprung from his chair, "I will not have my hand forced by you or anyone else! The sooner you let go of this ridiculous notion of love, the better off we will both be!" Snatching a hold of her shoulders, he shook her near-violently as he shouted, "Stop with this weakness Caroline!"

Knocking his hands off her, with tears gathering in her eyes, "I am not weak for loving! You are the weak one for denying love!"

Within a blink of an eye she was gone, and he was once again left alone.

He fell to his recently vacated chair, slumping down over his knees with his head grasped tightly in his hands. Hands that dared to touch her in such a despicable way. Klaus jumped to his feet, searching for a culprit to take his anger out on, only to realize with defeat that the only culprit was himself. It was he who hurt her, he who caused such a devastated look in her blue eyes. Disgusted with himself, he debated about going after her but decided she needed time to cool off. Instead he sat back to his chair, numbly staring at the empty fireplace.

Hours passed, the time for dinner came and went and still she did not come home. The air outside had grown colder as a cold front moved into the area, bringing with it strong, icy winds. Stoking the fire as the sun began to set and the first thick snowflakes began to fall, Klaus felt a pit gather within his stomach. Something was not right. Even as hurt and angered as she was, no matter how much she loved the snow, Caroline never stayed out past nightfall alone. Throwing on a thick winter coat that he didn't need, he left the cabin in search of her.

It took him longer than he would have liked to pick up on her scent. With the cold winds blowing and the thick band of snow swirling, it made it difficult to for even his elevated senses to make sense of much of anything.

Following his instincts, after circling the cabin repeatedly with no luck, he flashed towards her favorite spot. Just on the other side of the glade, only a mile away from the cabin, sat a lovely waterfall that fell into a crystal-clear pond. She was always loved the area no matter the time of year, in the warmer months she would swim, in the colder she would skate across its frozen surface. Some days they would just sit, taking in the sounds of the rushing waters as she read aloud or they secured their easels to the ground and painted.

The closer he came the more pronounced her scent became, filling him with relief and equal amounts of dread. He had hoped to find her well and safe, with a rigid set to her shoulders as she berated him for chasing after her. Though his worst fears were realized as he found her body ridged, not with anger but with cold.

Judging by her soaking wet, muddy clothing, she must have slipped and fell into the frigid waters. Her perseverance must have guided her as her body laid prone on the ground a few yards from the water's edge. But there was were her strength depleted.

Flashing to her side, finding he was unable to wake her, Klaus quickly removed his coat, wrapping it around her shivering form before flashing them back home.

Stripping her body of her cold wet clothing, he wrapped her in a thick quilt and placed her before the fire as he raced to draw her a warm bath in hopes to warm her.

By the time the sun began to shine over the mountain tops, her fever had spiked and her lungs rattled with the effort of every breath. He spent the first few days, spoon feeding her broth and altering between attempting to cool her and warm her as her sickness raged on.

As she rested fitfully on her bed, her skin as pale as when he had first found her and her fever high, he sat next to her cursing himself a fool for ever denying how things had changed between them.

Tenderly he placed a kiss to her sweat covered forehead, squeezing his eyes shut tightly as he hoarsely confessed, "You were right Caroline. I love you more than I ever imagined I would. I love you in a way I never planned nor expected." Curling up beside her as she shivered he recited,

" _It was many and many a year ago,_

 _In a kingdom by the sea,_

 _That a maiden there lived whom you may know_

 _By the name of Annabel Lee;_

 _And this maiden she lived with no other thought_

 _Than to love and be loved by me._

 _I was a child and she was a child,_

 _In this kingdom by the sea,_

 _But we loved with a love that was more than love—_

 _I and my Annabel Lee—_

 _With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven_

 _Coveted her and me._

 _And this was the reason that, long ago,_

 _In this kingdom by the sea,_

 _A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling_

 _My beautiful Annabel Lee;_

 _So that her highborn kinsmen came_

 _And bore her away from me,_

 _To shut her up in a sepulchre_

 _In this kingdom by the sea._

 _The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,_

 _Went envying her and me—_

 _Yes!—that was the reason (as all men know,_

 _In this kingdom by the sea)_

 _That the wind came out of the cloud by night,_

 _Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee._

 _But our love it was stronger by far than the love_

 _Of those who were older than we—_

 _Of many far wiser than we—_

 _And neither the angels in Heaven above_

 _Nor the demons down under the sea_

 _Can ever dissever my soul from the soul_

 _Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;_

 _For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams_

 _Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;_

 _And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes_

 _Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;_

 _And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side_

 _Of my darling—my darling—my life and my bride,_

 _In her sepulchre there by the sea—_

 _In her tomb by the sounding sea."_

Feeling her body relax against him, his eyes filling with tears, "Don't leave me, my love. _Please_."

He watched over her like a hawk over the next few days, haggard and spent, he calmed as she slowly began to take a turn for the better.

Caroline preened under his attention, unsure of what had happened while she was sick but took heart in his constant care. Though the better she got, the more a strange distance grew between them. He was no longer there at her side as she regained her strength and was able to walk on her own. She often ate alone which gradually turned into her cooking, eating and cleaning while he was nowhere to be found.

It was as if he was withdrawing from her and she didn't understand why. Every time she was set to confront him and find out, he would disappear for hours if not days.

She missed him, missed his smiles, his laugh, his wisdom and company. Her mind began to spiral down a heartbreaking path. Convincing herself that this was his way of telling her he did not love her and that she needed to move on. That he had only taken care of her out of obligation and just waited for the day she would finally take her leave.

With depression closing in on her, as much as the lonely walls of their once happy cabin, Caroline began taking long walks to clear her mind. She wanted to stay and fight for him but she couldn't shake the feeling that it was a lost cause, especially if he did not wish to be with her.

It was on one of her long, lonely walks she stumbled across a hiker, or more accurately, he stumbled into her.

"Oh my god! I'm so sorry!" The man exclaimed as he helped her to her feet. "I didn't think anyone else would be this far off the trails."

Caroline dusted her clothing off and smile, "It's alright. I wasn't really watching where I was going either."

The man grinned, offering his hand once again, "I'm Tyler."

His innocent demeanor eased her suspicions as she shook his hand, "Caroline. So what are you doing all the way out here?"

"I'm a photographer for a nature and wildlife magazine." He waved at the large camera hanging around his neck, "I was hoping to come across some wild animals in their natural habitat. Though I haven't had much luck so far and I only have another ten days left until I move to my next location."

They sat and talked for almost two hours, Caroline trading the secret dwellings of the local wildlife as Tyler spoke of all the places he had seen of the world. As time caught up with them, Tyler shyly asked if she would want to meet him again at the same time the next day. Caroline surprised even herself when she answered yes, much to his delight.

Day after day they met in the same place, him sharing stories as she shared her artwork. As he exclaimed how life-like her drawings were, so much so that he thought she could get a job at his magazine, her thoughts began to wonder. The day before Tyler's final day there, with no sign besides a few dirty dishes of Klaus', Caroline made her decision. Showing Tyler the road that lead to the cabin, she asked him to meet her there the following day and to take her with him.

That night after packing what little she would take with her, writing and rewriting a letter to Klaus, she cried herself to sleep in her cold bed within what had become a lonely cabin.

The sun was shining as Tyler helped her place the last bag of her belongings into the back of his Jeep when a sudden growl echoed through the glade.

"What the hell is this?"

Caroline gasped as Klaus appeared for the first time in weeks, her hands twisting together as the light glinted off his barely concealed fangs.

Tyler not understanding the danger he was in, leaned closer to Caroline with a hard whisper, "Who's this? An angry ex?"

Caroline laughed nervously, "No, he's…well…he's…Klaus."

Sensing her distress, Tyler rubbed her upper arms, "Hey, it's alright. He doesn't look so tough, I can take him if it comes to it. Why don't you just get in the car." He quickly ushered her to the passenger door when they were stopped by Klaus's livid snarl and mocking laughter.

"You're leaving? With _him_?"

Caroline turned to face him, her chin held high, "Yes. And what do you care anyways? It's not like you've been around. I got the hint Klaus. I may not have lived…" realizing their audience she cleared her throat, "I may not have as much _life experience_ as you, but I know when I'm not wanted."

"Not wanted?" Klaus baulked before shouting, "I never would have made you what you are if I didn't want you here!"

"Yes!" Caroline spat with her eyes lighting up like twin blue flames, "You saved me from a fate and life I know nothing about! You won't even tell me where I come from! For all your talks of family you can't even admit how you feel!" Rubbing a hand over her forehead, she shook her head, "No. You know what? This isn't worth the calories I burn talking to you."

Tyler, confused and creeped out about how they were talking, thought to help. Whatever had gone on between these two was obviously bordering on some creepy cult-like stuff, "Come one Care, let's just get you out of here." Turning her body by her shoulders, he tried to force her into the Jeep.

The slimy mutt's hands on her once again, combined with her hurtful words sparked a red-hot rage through Klaus. In a blink of an eye he snatched Tyler away from her, his shape fangs digging into the boy's neck.

With Tyler's fear stricken eyes staring at her, Caroline shouted, "Klaus! Stop! Please!"

Releasing his fangs from the boy's neck, blood dripping down his face, Klaus grinned devilishly at her, "Now that was definitely worth the calories."

Leveling him with a hard gaze, she stomped her foot, "That's enough Klaus! Let him go!"

"Why should I? You've chosen this poor excuse of a man to leave me with, I'm just showing you how incapable he is at keeping you safe." Klaus laughed darkly, "Look how the boy struggles within my grasp and yet cannot move more than an inch. How do you expect him to defend you if things should go wrong when he can't even remove himself from my hold?"

Caroline crossed her arms over her chest with a scoff at his childish behavior, "No one could get themselves out of your arms and away from you."

"You could." He spat back before his emotions seeped through, cracking his voice along with his hard expression, "You are. You're strong enough to leave me. I tried and failed to be strong enough to leave you, but I can't."

"What do you mean? I haven't seen you in weeks!"

"No, but I have seen you. I have watched you sleep, watched as the tears dried on your cheeks long after you fall asleep. I curse myself for putting them there. Me! The one who brought you here, the one who promised you forever."

"If it bothers you so much to see that you've hurt me then why are you doing it?" She begged him as she watched the pain cross his tired face, pain that echoed deep within her breast, "Why can't you just admit that you love me?!"

"Because you are going to leave me!" His voice raged, startling all of them into silence.

"If you'd just be honest with me I wouldn't go." She pleaded tearfully after a moment.

Klaus sneered, his face hardening once again, "But you will! You will die and leave me alone! But at least you won't have the chance with this one here."

Caroline gasped, knowing what he was preparing to do as Klaus's hands moved to the sides of the boy's head to snap his neck. She flashed, using all of her strength she yanked Tyler out of Klaus's hold, flinging his body behind her where it landed with a sickening thud and crack.

Caroline stared at Klaus, their eyes rounded in shock as she gasped before turning around, freezing in her spot as she found Tyler's body laying at the foot of a thick tree, his back and neck both sitting at such an odd angle.

Grimly Klaus walked over, bending to check for the pulse he knew he would not find to give himself time to figure out how to help her. Caroline was such a caring person, the fact that she had killed this boy would affect her in ways he wasn't sure he knew how to handle. Her earth-shattering scream hit in square in the chest, forcing his eyes to close in regret. Pulling himself together, Klaus stood and turned knowing he had to be there for her if they held any hope of surviving this. Only what he found as he turned set his entire world off-kilter.

Caroline was on her hands and knees, panting in pain with her head hanging low to the ground. Flashing to her side, Klaus placed his hand upon her shoulders, forcing her to lift her face. And what a beautiful face it was. Dark veins webbed beneath her eyes, eyes that were no longer his favorite shade of blue but as red as blood. Her breath hissed from between her teeth, teeth that now held a set of long, pointed and deadly fangs.

"What's happening to me?" Her voice trembled as her body shook.

"Shh. It's okay sweetheart. I'm here."

Gingerly Caroline lifted her trembling hand to feel below her eyes and her teeth. A gasp of surprise left her lips, "I'm like you now. How?"

Klaus's mind worked on overdrive as he ran over the events of his past and what had just transpired. The spell his Mother had cast on them when the plague had struck their village had not worked on his siblings. They all died of the sickness while he, in a fever induced haze, had killed his Mother, turning him into the creature he is today.

Caroline had killed the boy, forcing her body into its transformation.

Recalling the pain he had went through the first few hours after his change until he had drank his first sip of blood, he shushed her as he lifted her up into his arms, carrying her into the cabin.

"It's alright Caroline. Let's get you something to drink and then we shall discuss everything." He shouldered the door closed behind him, pausing to look down into her now blue eyes, "There is one thing you should know before anything else though."

Her hand tightened its hold at the back of his neck, "What's that?"

Klaus smiled bashfully, "You were correct in your assumption. I love you Caroline. I love you more than I could possibly say."

She smiled brightly in return, everything momentarily forgotten at his confession, "I told you so!"

Klaus laughed as he placed her to the kitchen counter, handing her a blood bag from the refrigerator, "That's all you have to say?"

"I love you too Klaus." She answered with a pleased smile before sipping from the bag. The blood went through her system, bring a wave of calm to her tense body as it went and centering her mind, bring her thoughts back into focus. Wincing she looked to Klaus who was watching her every move with concern, "I feel fine. Better than fine actually." She felt a warmth course through her at his visible show of relief and how he could not stop touching her in some way or another. A hand on her arm, her knee, a brush of her hair or cheek. She almost allowed herself to get lost in it before she remembered what had happened outside, "Klaus?"

"Yes, my love?"

She bit her lower lip at his new pet name for her before shaking her head, "There is a dead body outside." Her lips trembled as her eyes welled with tears, "I killed him."

Cupping her face, Klaus forced her to look at him, "Hey, hey. Listen to me. I will always keep you safe, remember?" At her nod he continued, "You go take a shower, get into your favorite pajamas and relax. I will take care of everything."

"And then we will talk?" She eyed him meaningfully.

"Yes sweetheart, then we shall talk."

He watched her go off to do as he has suggested, relieved that she had not argued with him this time. As he made the trek back towards the cabin after leaving the Jeep and the boy's body to look as if he had had a terrible accident who knew there was still so much left to discuss with Caroline. But even when faced with things that would likely turn into an argument with her he couldn't help but feel a spring in his step.

She was alive.

She was here with him.

Where she would stay for all time, always and forever.

They would never be alone again.

XXX

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A special note to my readers:

I know I have said this a lot lately, that life and whatnot has pulled me from writing and that "I'm back." Well this time I hope to see this all through. I lost my way a little with writing due to writer's block, life, friends, kids…blah blah blah. I am working hard at getting back to my inspiration. I had a lot of fun writing this one. It's a different genre-ish than I normally do so it was fun and exciting. Don't be afraid to send me a "hey! How are things going?" message if I disappear for too long. Thank you to all of you!

Please leave me a little review to let me know what you thought of this story.


	34. Twisted Perception

**Twisted Perception.**

Takes place during TVD Season 3 Episode 15 before going completely off canon.

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"So, what do you want to talk about?"

"I want to talk about you. Your...your hopes, your dreams," Cringing slightly at his stutter, Klaus covered his misstep with a lowered tone and a smoldering gaze that often melted a reluctant woman, "everything you want in life."

Caroline's blue eyes twinkled under the streetlights, her soft yet blinding smile helping to bolster his confidence, "Just to be clear," she smirked, knowing she had him hanging on her every breath, "I'm too smart to be seduced by you."

Pleasantly delighted with her rebuttal, his lips curved into a charming smile, "Well that's why I like you."

Caroline felt stunned and oddly flattered, and if his bashful chuckle was anything to go by, her emotions were clearly written on her face. But she couldn't help it, his answer was not at all what she had been expecting. Most men, well _boys_ in her experience, would either walk away or take her answer as a means to press their case even harder. She had no idea what to make of Klaus and his reply. He was either really good at playing whatever game he had going on with her or, as hard a time as she had believing it, he was genuinely interested. No matter many times she argued both sides to herself, she honestly had no clue which she would prefer. Realizing she needed to say something to keep him here she cleared her throat and turned her body to face him fully.

"Well then as long as that clear." She winced at her repeat and his amused smirk.

"Crystal sweetheart." Sliding just a few inches closer to her, emboldened by her acceptance of his presence in her person space Klaus pressed on, "Does this mean you'll answer my questions about your hopes and dreams?"

"No." The suddenness of her answer briefly astonished him before she could see the hope begin to die out from his eyes. But before he could bring his walls slowly back up she surprised him yet again with a demanding of her own, "You seem to know so much about me yet I know next to nothing about you."

"I beg to differ sweetheart." He deflected playfully.

"Really?" Caroline's amusement carried musically through her voice as she arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. "Aside for the tiny details like; art, drinking and extravagant gifts. The only other things I know is you have severe daddy-issues and are a megalomaniac."

If it had been any other to voice such things Klaus would have boasted before ripping out their hearts slowly from their chests. Yet strangely enough, with this tiny slip of a girl, this beautiful glowing vampire, he didn't have a single iota within him to hurt her. Somehow, she was able to convey a deeper understanding yet an interest to learn more hidden within her teasing lilt.

"Outside of a few other details," Klaus waved his hand before resting it on the back of the bench between them, "there isn't much more to tell really."

"So you aren't going to answer my questions?" She accused him, "How is that even fair? You want to know all about me, you're even trying to _woo_ me in your own twisted way, but you won't do a quid pro quo?"

"It would seem you have me at a checkmate." Klaus conceded with a smirk, "So go on Caroline, have at it."

Her pupils dilated just a hair, her breath hitched as the telltale signs of veins began to grow beneath her eyes before she regained control.

It all happened within a split second, if it had been anyone else, they would have missed her reaction entirely. But he wasn't just anyone else. The moment he spoke those words like him, she too had an image flash inside her mind of her body in his arms, her teeth in his flesh as his blood spilled down her throat.

 _Interesting._ Klaus thought, filing away the newly gained information while tamping down his desire. Now was not the time. Even if she was sitting here of her own accord, it did not mean Caroline would be open to those particular sorts of advances. _Yet_.

"What is it you want Klaus?" Caroline rushed out, waving a finger in his face, "And don't you dare say the cliché, _you_. I'm mean obviously everything you've done was for a reason. Breaking your curse, terrorizing the town, building a hybrid slave army. What I want to know is _why_. What are you trying to accomplish? Why was it all so important to you?"

The honesty in her eyes touched him yet it was the odd note of desperation he could pick up just under her demanding tone that he failed to understand. Just why was she so set on understanding him? Was this for some twisted plot that would come crumbling down around her merry little band of thorns in his side? Or was it simple for herself. Gulping, Klaus shoved his innate paranoia down deep. He had asked her for a chance, and knowing Caroline, if he wanted to gain that elusive chance he too would have to take a risk.

Sighing slightly, he began, shockingly discovering that once he started opening up to her he couldn't stop. Moreover, he didn't _want_ to stop, "Imagine being hated for being something that you never asked to be. Something you were born into at no fault of your own. Imagine having this part of you locked away, always hidden beneath the surface of your very core. Always battling with every rise of the full moon, clawing and scraping to be released but never able to accomplish it. The rage and frustration building to a point that is forever ready to snap but will never break. Nothing soothing the caged creature who lives just beneath your skin. No blood, drinks, family, art or women are enough to dull the constant ache you feel every day. Then finally after five hundred years of such torment you discover all the ingredients needed to set it free only to have all your hopes dashed moments before it's set to begin. Twelve full moons a year over the course of a thousand years is enough to drive anyone to the point of being, what was it you called me? A megalomaniac."

"I can't even imagine." Caroline breathed in stun, "I'm sure it's like when I first turned but," Pressing her lips she winced, "Sorry that can't even compare. My experience was like a drop in the bucket compared to yours."

Leaning forward, Klaus soothed her worries, "Don't under value your own struggles Caroline. Everyone has their own demons, mine just happened to follow me around for a thousand years. We shall have to revisit this topic when you hit your thousandth birthday."

"Right." She scoffed, "With how the past few years of my life have gone I doubt I'll make it that far."

"Oh you will." He spoke, his voice and eyes seeping with a hard confidence that nearly left her reeling.

"How can you be so sure?"

"Because, I will insure it."

She gasped at what he was saying, the surety that oozed off him. She wanted to refute him. To tell him that she was sure he would lose interest in her before this year was out. But something about the look in his eyes, a look she wasn't entirely sure he even knew was there, stopped her, striking her with the realization that he was completely and utterly serious. Exhaling shakily, she decided to get them back on track and table this new development for later. _Much later_.

"Okay, so I understand the whole breaking your curse thing and I get the issues with your father. Possibly more than you'd understand." She mumbled before continuing, "But you still aren't answering my question. In fact, I think you're side stepping it altogether."

Klaus chuckled lowly, "You're quite preceptive."

"Why Klaus. What is it you want? What was the point of it all."

He adored the way her eyes flared as she made her demands with her no-nonsense tone. He could see what had Rebekah tied up in knots when it came to the girls on the cheer squad blindly following Caroline, without compulsion, instead of her. Caroline exalted such a firm leadership quality that brokered no argument. Why her little group of friends had never taken advantage of her vast skills were beyond him. Either they were too blind or arrogant to see what an asset a creature like Caroline truly was.

While he would not deny his own arrogance, he was not blind to the amazing creature that was seated beside him.

"I want what everyone strives for I suppose." He began nonchalantly, "I want safety for my family. I want a place to call home. Well I have a few places I could call home if I'm being entirely honest. I want to live without fear of my family turning against me, of them being caught in a war that was placed upon my shoulders and dying as a result. I want people with whom I can trust. I want loyalty. And I…"

Caroline glanced from his face with his far-off eyes to his fist that was clenched on the back of the bench. Steeling herself with a bravery and compassion she didn't know she had when it came to him, she reached out, unfurling his fist and laid her hand on top of it before softly asking, "And what Klaus?"

His grey eyes were filled with too many emotions for her to keep track of as they shined with what almost looked like tears as he huskily whispered as if he was sharing one of his deepest, darkest secrets, "And I want to be trusted. I want just a single person on this planet to think that _I_ am the trusted and loyal one."

 _Do you ever feel like there isn't a person in the whole world that loves you?_

The breath left her lungs as his words inspired her own from so long ago to come rushing back to her. Her voice was barely a whisper as he turned his hand, linking their fingers together, "I'm sure your family thinks of you in that way."

Klaus chuckled humorously, his eyes staring at their joined hands, fearful to move lest she come to her senses and realize she was holding hands with a monster. "They think of me as a great many things but I assure you, trusting and loyal are the furthest from their minds."

"Yeah, I'm sure locking them in boxes might have something to do with that." She scoffed with a lighthearted eyeroll, "Maybe if you tried talking things out with them instead of stabbing them in the chest and then locking them away for years at a time they might grow to see that they can trust you."

"You are quite fond of this talking things out bit aren't you?" He teased, brushing his thumb lightly across hers.

Caroline blushed, "Yes. That and walking away."

They smiled softly at each other, both remembering the night before when she had walked away when suddenly Klaus felt a stabbing pain within his chest, his hand resting on his leg flying to press against it.

"What is it? You aren't like the Grinch, are you?" Caroline giggled, "Surely my words didn't cause your heart to grow."

His head snapped to her, his eyes no longer the soft, open grey but now shooting sparks of heat and anger as he used his hold on her hand to pull her up with him as he flashed to a stand. "What did you do?"

"Klaus, I was only kidding."

Snarling he gripped her shoulders, shaking her violently, "What did you do?!"

"Nothing stop it!"

The fear laced in her voice, the way her eyes flicked towards the bar behind him as if she was only now recalling something pieced it all together for him. This had been nothing but a ploy, a means to separate him from his brother. Nothing that transpired between them tonight meant anything more to her than a means to distract him.

Yet he still could not hurt her.

A harshly whispered curse barely left his lips before he flashed towards the bar leaving Caroline to shakily sit to the now cold bench alone with nothing but her guilt to keep her company.

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With her mind running wild over the events of the past day, Caroline had no idea how much time had passed. Her indecision over what to do was nearly eating her alive but as if a fire had been lit beneath her, she sprang from the bench.

"Damn it all to hell! You just _had_ to get to know the egotistical maniac, didn't you Caroline." She berated herself, harshly pulling her fingers through her hair before she stood tall and proud, a choice firmly lighting the depths of her blue eyes. "Stupid hybrid with his stupid puppy eyes." She groaned before flashing away.

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Thanks for reading, don't forget to give me a feeding. Reviews. LOL.

I am so sorry for my lack of focus and falling down a rabbit hole of distractions. To answer a few questions I have received; yes I am still writing. Yes I am going to continue working on my other stories. I had these big dreams of dirty words like, a writing schedule and writing goals. Yuck I know! For now, to help myself get back on track I have decided to just go with where the inspiration takes me. Hence this new story. It's been one of the many ideas rolling around inside my brain for a while now. (I have many of them. Sometimes I think too many and that's what gets me so distracted!) I am posting Chapter One here so that those of you who follow this drabble series can easily find it. Once you finish reading this here, you can go to my main page on this site to find the new full story with Chapter Two! If it is not there right away it's only because you are so awesome and finished this first chapter before I could put the finishing touches on Chapter Two!

Again, thanks so much for reading and sticking with me.


	35. It's Been Awhile

**25 Days of Klaroline 2017: Day 2: Endgame:** _ **It's Been Awhile**_

Title and idea for this drabble came from the song, _It's Been Awhile_ by _Staind._

I know a lot of the time when a writer posts about a song, many of us don't listen to it. I **highly suggest** heading over to YouTube and **listening to the song before reading this story** , even if you already know the song. It will **really help** to put you in the mind set I have for Klaus in this story. **Seriously!** It's like 3 minutes long and so, so good!

* * *

XXX

" _It's been awhile  
Since I could  
Hold my head up high…_

 _And it's been awhile  
Since I could stand  
On my own two feet again…"  
_

XXX

Footsteps echoed through the dark alley and down to a thick, wooden door hidden at the end of a stone staircase. Caroline, having been warned of the speak-easy type qualities of the place, used the tip of her fang to pierce her thumb, drawing a single bead of blood to smear across the door. The moment her vampire blood soaked into the wood, the heavy door clicked open, allowing her to enter. Her lip curled in disgust as she slowly walked through the entryway of the dark, seedy bar. Holding her head high like a regal Queen, she entered the establishment. It helped her confidence to know that her small entourage of a handful of witches and vampires were following her into the room, especially after discovering the spectacle happening within.

The smell of fresh blood was thick with the poorly ventilated stone walls of the underground room. What she could only assume to be newly turned vampires, by their messy and downright disgusting feeding habits, were feasting on whimpering humans throughout the room. They were everywhere, across the bar top, the tables, on the floor and against the walls. But the biggest show of all happened to be the one person she had been searching for.

Though, the state she found him in left very little of the person she had come to know and more of the Original Hybrid that she used to fear.

Seated on an oversized chair, that had frankly seen better days, was a filthy, shirtless Klaus. His eyes in their full hybrid gold, blood dripping off nearly every visible inch of him, with two scantily clad human women draped over him as he fed from a bloody wrist.

Caroline held herself tall and rigid, but she couldn't lie to herself. Seeing him like this send a painful twinge through her chest. Though she couldn't, or wouldn't, say whether it was because of the state of their undress or the fact that he was here like this at all. This was so _not_ how she expected to find him.

From everything that she had heard from Kol and Rebekah over the past few years, Klaus had changed. He had found his inner humanity, had grown into a better man and a wonderful Father. The complete absence of that elusive man they had spoken of turned the twinge of pain into a spark of anger as he finally noticed her standing there with her toe tapping against the sticky floor. If he was surprised to see her she couldn't tell, but then again, he was always good at hiding things like that when he wanted to.

Seeing _her_ standing there before him so unexpectedly, Klaus struggled to maintain his air of aloofness as the wrist of one of the humans fell from his grasp, "Caroline! What a pleasant surprise. Join us for a drink Love?" He smirked, having gained the reaction he knew such an offer would pull from her when he held out a proffered wrist.

Caroline scoffed, her distaste clearly written on her face as she curled her lip sarcastically, "Thanks but I think I'll pass. By the looks of this place I'd be lucky to find a place clean enough to set my purse on, let alone drink from."

"Ah," Klaus teased, "but I seem to recall a time when the cleanliness of such things bothered you very little."

"Yeah and you were right in the thick of things then too. Causing me all kinds of grief." Caroline reprimanded before glancing away from him when she noticed a nervous Roman inching his way to her. "What is it?" She asked, waving the boy over under the watchful glare of Klaus.

The young boy's eyes flicked between the ominous form of the Hybrid and Caroline as he whispered, "The witches…they are getting antsy."

Caroline held back the urge to roll her eyes, shooting a menacing glare towards the group of witches standing anxiously off to the side, "Yeah well, let them know it will only be a few more minutes and then you all can _clean house_."With a nod he scrambled away bringing a soft giggle to Caroline's lip as she brushed her hair over her shoulder and faced Klaus once more, happy to find that while she had been talking with Roman he had dismissed the two human women from his lap, leaving them to stand at the back of his chair forgotten.

Klaus stood from his chair, not bothering with his shirt which was ripped beyond repair. His grey eyes glittering with mischief as he walked towards her, "I see you've gained some minions of your own in our lengthy time apart Love. A word of advice if I may, you might want to consider find a few new ones. That young buck there seems a bit too skittish to be of any use."

"That _young buck_ isn't my minion and he's normally not like that." She defended before muttering, "Though under the circumstances, I can't say I blame him." Before he could question her, or her meaning, Caroline clapped her hands together, "Okay! Chop-chop Klaus. No time to waste. We've got people to see and things to do. But first, ew." She pulled a face as she looked him up and down, "You need to get cleaned up because all this," she waved a hand in his direction indicating all the bodily fluids that she so did not want to even think about, "needs to go. This whole, _I'm-wounded-and-sad-so-I'll-kill-fuck-and-maim-everything_ look is totally not working for you."

Klaus didn't know whether to laugh at her comical expression or snap at her impertinence. The twittering witches off to the side chose for him, bringing a snarl to his lips that they assumed he could be ordered about, "You dare to come here, into _my_ establishment and order me at your bidding?"

"Um, duh." She tilted her head with mock sweetness, "Isn't that how this has always worked?" Sighing when she saw he wasn't relenting, "I get that you are having _personal issues,_ but can we just skip the whole you yell at me, I yell at you, then you get all huffy and I win in the end anyways crap? It's time to clean up and sober up Klaus."

Her tone and demands bristled at his nerves, reminding him of all the things he was trying to forget. Of just why he had spiraled into the shell of a man he had become, "And just why do I need to clean up when I'm having a perfectly fine time here?"

"I can give you a list if you'd like." She answered pertly, lifting her fingers one at a time, "You smell. You look like a beggar." Pausing in her counting for a moment, she waved her two fingers in a circle, "You think you look all intimidating with all this mess but that's all you put off, a mess. Your family. Your daughter." She narrowed her eyes coldly, "Shall I go on? What was it you once said to me while you were wearing a Tyler-suit? You have a beautiful future ahead of you?"

"Says the woman who has spent the last decade with her daughters as well as mine. I have nothing left." Klaus spat, his chest heaving at all the reminders he had long shoved to the darkest corners of his mind.

"Yes, I have. And if you wouldn't have gone all Machiavellian and underground you would have seen her grow up over the past decade."

"Really?" He scoffed harshly, tossing over his shoulder as he stomped to his chair, "How's that when I can't be within the same city as her, let alone the same state?"

"Just like Rebekah and Kol have," Caroline fired back, following after him, "through that lovely little thing called technology. Facetime you ass." She smirked down at him, her hands on her hips like a towering Queen. "And _maybe_ if you were less like a nasty street-rat and more your normally hygienic self, your daughter might actually recognize you when she sees you."

Klaus felt a strange pulling inside him, his eyes widened, and he snapped, springing to his feet he cornered Caroline, yelling in her face, "You dare to bring her here! Knowing what could happen if you did?!"

"What? No!" Her eyes widened as he backed her against a dirty stone wall, subtly waving away the witches and Roman who were moving to her assistance.

"I can feel it Caroline." He snarled slamming his hand against the wall next her head, sending a cloud of dust over her, "At first I thought it was you and what you reminded me of, but it's not. It's the pull from the monster that lives caged within me. That seething parasite that wants nothing more than to join herself back together again and destroy all that I hold dear."

"Oh, right." Her fear and anger deflated once she caught up to his concern, telling him softly, "It's not Hope, it's your siblings." Narrowing her eyes at him when his eyes flashed and he growled, she pushed off the wall, turning the tables on him as she backed him up, "Now don't you get all hybridy with me! I have them all safely daggered and stowed away until we get there."

Klaus stopped when the back of his legs hit his chair, sneering at her viciously, "As you are standing here before me, I can rightly assume you were not the one to dagger them. Who was the unlucky fellow to die daggering my siblings? One of your many suitors perhaps? One who didn't toe the line as required? Or perhaps it was one who was in love with another, we all know how those are your type."

"Please, unlike you I don't kill unless I have to. They were all daggered willingly and by magic just to be safe." She rolled her eyes, not falling for his bait, knowing he was just lashing out, but tossed out a barb of her own, "With a thousand years of fighting you off, I couldn't risk them having a knee jerk reaction when it came to the daggers and attacking..." She stumbled over the names she didn't want to say, clearing her throat she tossed her arms out to the side, "Can we just go now?"

Klaus fell into his chair, lazily flinging his leg over the arm rest as he snatched one of the dazed humans to his lap, "I don't think I will. As you can see, I am currently occupied. And as much as I enjoy our little banter," He slowly titled the woman's neck, lowering his face to it, "this endeavor is one I can really sink my teeth into." Keeping his eyes on her, he plunged his fangs into the faceless woman's neck. His jaw clenching to hold back the instinctive flinch and need to pull back as Caroline winced at his actions.

"Fine, whatever. Act like a child for all I care." Caroline bit out, spinning on her heels and marching to the door, waving her hand for her entourage to fall in line behind her. With a withering glare over her shoulder she spat, "I'll be sure to tell your daughter just how much you cared to be free and to finally see her again."

In an instant Klaus shoved the woman from his lap, flashing to stand menacingly in the doorway to block Caroline's departure, "There isn't a way Caroline. I will not have you feeding her false hop…falsehoods of things that will never be."

"But what if there is?" She closed in on him, pleading with him and that small spark of hope in his eyes she had saw as his voice broke, "Can you really just let the chance go? Let me walk away without ever knowing whether what I know will work or not? To finally be free? To see the world again instead of cowering in this hovel? To see your siblings again? To see your daughter again? To see what an amazing young woman she has become."

Her pleading blue eyes, filled with promise and hope of a different future than the one currently laid out for him left him sagging. Slowly he lifted his hand to touch her face, only to stop mere inches from her skin at the ghastly sight of his dirty fingertips, "If she's become anything as grand as you say, it's because she had you there to guide her."

Klaus sighed as his arm fell limply to his side, seeing him beginning to crack Caroline placed her hand gently to the side of his face, tenderly whispering, "Come on Klaus, what do you have to lose? Either this will work, or it won't. But if you come with me, at least you can say you _tried_ instead of just sinking further down into your _blame-the-whole-world,_ blood soaked and frankly pathetic self you've let yourself become."

With the soft grin and delicate curve of her eyebrow, Klaus felt the familiar pulling's of distractions-past. Remembering all too well the utter confidence this vibrant woman held once she knew her ways were working on him, and the lengths she would go to ensure it, Klaus did something he had vowed he would never allow to happen.

He gave in.

He gave in to the small spark of the possibility of actually _living_ again. Of seeing those he had once thought he never would again.

Seeing his capitulation, Caroline smiled at him before turning to give the orders to Roman and the witches to clean up the mess and meet them at the warehouse in two hours. As she fell in step beside Klaus, taking in his ragged appearance she smirked cheekily, tossing over her shoulder, "Better make that three."

XXX

" _It's been awhile  
Since I could  
Look at myself straight…"_

XXX

The steam billowed around him as Klaus opened the glass door of the shower, stepping onto the plush mat as he pulled a towel off the warming rack. The softness of the mat on his feet and the towel against his skin were luxuries he had little afforded himself over the past decade.

He remembered little of the drive here, or Caroline escorting him to his set of rooms in the massive manor house she had rented. Drugs had very little effects on vampires, but when consumed through human blood at the mass quantities he had been ingesting them over the years, their addictive and sedative qualities had lasting results. As the steam around him thinned, so did the self-medicated fog he had placed his mind in.

A decade.

So lost in drug soaked blood, alcohol and meaningless sex that he had had no inkling of its passing.

Wiping the fog off the mirror was like wiping away the last of the grime that he washed off in the shower, seeing himself clearly for the first time in so long.

He hardly recognized himself.

Gone was the man who sacrificed his life for his family. Gone was the man who had grown as a person for the first time in over a thousand years. Gone was the perpetual flirt, the swindler, the master of all, the smooth talker and the one who was always one step ahead.

Instead, staring back at him was a man he knew very little of. A man so lost he didn't know how to face himself or the chance of what was to come.

Mechanically he plied the razor to his face, vaguely wincing at the sight he must have been to Caroline, as his mind wandered.

The first two years after being separated from his family he had tried. Tried to be good, tried to be the sort of man his daughter could be proud of. But eventually it all got to be too much for him to bear. The loneliness, the random phone calls, the pictures of his daughter that he refused to open. To see her grow without him by her side.

His fall from grace had happened by accident, or by design if you asked some. He had stumbled upon a rather seedy establish, much like the one Caroline had found him in, and that had been that. He had rarely frequented those sort of places, only the sporadic adventure with Kol back in the late 1700's when the two of them ran wild, causing quite the stir across Europe and a mess for Elijah to clean up.

He had quickly discovered that the drug-laced blood of now was so much more potent than that of days past. Their euphoric, mind-numbing qualities causing him to spiral rapidly down the rabbit hole to the point of no return.

Until now. Until Caroline.

His hands trembled with the tremors of an addict as he rinsed his face and left the washroom. As he stepped into the connecting bedroom the scent of blood wafted through his senses. Following the scent to the bedside table he couldn't help but marvel at Caroline's forethought. How she knew that pure and fresh blood was the key to him shaking off the last of his withdrawals, he didn't care to know. He could only be thankful that someone as pure as she would help him in his time of need.

As he dropped the towel and began to dress, he found his body feeling more like itself once again. Spying a full length mirror off to the side, Klaus went to it to check over his appearance, hoping to see the man he once was but instead finding himself lost within his reflection. While his body was quickly healing, his mind was still lost among the fog.

XXX

"… _It's been awhile  
Since I've gone and  
Fucked things up  
Just like I always do  
And it's been awhile  
But all that shit  
Seems to disappear  
When I'm with you…"_

XXX

Caroline paced in the living room of the manor under her daughters' watchful eyes.

"Mom? Hello! We've been talking to you for twenty minutes without a response. Will you just sit down already?" Lizzie huffed as she flung herself back in her seat on the sofa.

"Seriously!" Josie exclaimed, throwing her hands up, "You're making me dizzy."

Caroline grimaced as she paused in her frantic pacing, wringing her hands together as she glanced between her daughters, "He's been in there almost two and a half hours. Do you think I should go check on him?"

The clearing of a male throat drew their attention to the doorway, "There's no need for that."

"Klaus." Caroline whispered, her voice and body showing her relief as the tension that had built up drained from her.

Caroline's soft smile at his entrance held him captive until he found two curious faces peering at him from over the back of the sofa as they whispered to each other.

"So _that's_ Hope's Dad. The infamous Original Hybrid." The blonde one whispered with a tilt of her head like she was attempting to decide if his title suited him or not.

"So that's Mom's _friend_ we went looking for in New Orleans when we were little." The brunette giggled quietly, her statement and the stress of the word _friend_ causing Klaus's eyebrows to shoot up his forehead.

He turned to study Caroline's reaction, her cheeks holding an intriguing blush as she nervously began talking over the girls, "Okay that's enough. You two are far too old to be acting like this."

"Don't stop on my account ladies, I'm quite interested in hearing of your trip to New Orleans." Klaus smiled genuinely for the first time in far too long at the sounds of the girls' laughter.

The younger blonde stood from the sofa with all the grace and airs of a diplomat as she made her way to him holding out her hand, "I'm sure our Mom would rather tell the story herself. I'm Elizabeth Saltzman. But most people call me Lizzie."

Klaus gently took her hand, bowing slightly over it as he smiled, "Pleasure to meet you Sweetheart. Niklaus Mikaelson, people call me Klaus."

Her sister appeared beside her, acting a bit more shy now that they were face to face. Klaus held his hand out for her to take, "And you are?"

"Josie." She replied softly, chewing on her lower lip much like her Mother did when nervous.

"Charmed, Sweetheart."

"Yeah, yeah." Caroline rolled her eyes at how thick Klaus was laying it on for her daughters. "We're all so _charmed_ to meet each other, but I believe we have other things that we need to be doing right about now."

"Are you jealous Love? I apologize that our first introduction did not go as smoothly as the one between your daughters and I."

"Do we really want to get into just how that first introduction went?" Caroline sassed.

"Oh, I know! I know!" Lizzie giggled, "That was when he was going to sacrifice you to break his curse."

"No stupid." Josie rolled her eyes, "They hadn't met then. The first time they met was when he had them all locked in the high school on prank night, when he turned Mom's old boyfriend or whatever."

Klaus had the courtesy to look down sheepishly while Caroline gasped at the girls in appall. "How do you two know any of that?"

Klaus watched on as the two girls shifted closer to each other under their Mother's formative glare as Lizzie, who he was coming to find was the more outspoken of the two, explained, "Well, um, we…Hope, Josie and me, we were just curious. I mean you talk about him, but you don't, you know, _talk_ about him. So we asked Auntie Bekah about it during one of our weekly FaceTime chats."

Klaus was caught between wanting to groan at what his sister had possibly told the three girls and the feeling the shock at the title Lizzie had bestowed upon his sister.

Caroline for her part was rubbing her hand over her forehead, muttering nonsense under her breath, "Of course she did. Ugh. When I…" Snapping her head towards the small group, as if realizing she was not alone, she shook herself clear of such thoughts, vowing to herself to deal with Rebekah later, "Okay, enough of all that. It's time to go. Girls, are you sure you have everything you need to see this through?"

"Yes Mom." The girls' parroted.

Clapping her hands, "Right then. Let's get this show on the road." Caroline turned with a smile to Klaus, "There's a lot of people waiting to see you."

Klaus, embarrassingly, jumped back as if he had been burnt with a look of pure panic and dread upon his suddenly ashen face.

With the girls gathering their things, they both failed to notice Klaus's out of character reaction, to which Caroline smoothly tried to cover, "Girls, can you give us a few minutes? We'll meet you in the car."

"Sure Mom." Josie said elbowing Lizzie who started snickering beside her, both assuming the two adults wanted a moment alone for a very different reason.

Calming herself, Lizzie added trying to mask the remaining laughter in her voice, "Not a problem Mom. It will be easier to place the spell on him in the car anyways. That way we can get help carrying him in the warehouse instead of us hauling him from here to the car."

Her words brought out his paranoia, as he asked with suspicion, "What spell?"

"Nothing to worry about Klaus." Josie answered him softly with a graceful smile, "It's sort of like a stasis spell. We can't use the daggers on you like we could your siblings, so we had to improvise."

"Yeah." Lizzie joined in excitedly, "We made these super cool shackles that will go on your wrists, but don't worry, it won't hurt. At least that's what Hope said. She said it just makes it were you can't move but you can still see and hear everything going on. It only lasts until we take them off."

Seeing the well-known strongest and deadliest vampire alive gulp at the name of his daughter gave the twins pause, making them realized maybe their Mom wanted time alone with him for something other than reconnecting after all these years. Offering him reassuring smiles, they quickly took their leave, giving the two adults the privacy they needed.

The moment the front door closed Caroline flashed to Klaus, placing her hands on both sides of his face, "Klaus. Hey, look at me." She smiled sympathetically as his wide grey eyes stared into hers, "It's going to be okay. This is going to work. I know it. I wouldn't let my girls do this spell if I wasn't a hundred percent sure of it, right?" Mechanically he nodded his head in agreement, "Right. Just think, soon you'll be able to see your family again."

Under any other circumstance, her beaming smile would have warmed his icy core. "What if she hates me?" He stiltedly whispered before gulping down harshly after the words escaped his mouth.

"What?"

"H…Hope." Klaus exhaled shakily, saying her name for the first time in years, "What if she hates what I've become? What I've done. What if she hates me for leaving her after I promised to never do so again?"

"Klaus Mikaelson you listen to me and listen to me good." Caroline ordered firmly, "I've had the immense pleasure of watching that girl grow up. I know her as well as I do my own two girls. And I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hope could _never_ hate you. She loves you. So much."

"But I…"

"No. But nothing." Caroline firmly cut him off, "No more of this _pity-party-hybrid-fest_. You're better than this, you might not remember that right now, but _I_ do." Seeing he was not fully convinced, she attempted a different approach, "Do you trust me?"

"Yes." The answer flew from his lips so fast it stunned them both.

"Good…" Caroline took a steading breath before continuing gently, "Then trust me when I say that none of that matters. All your fears and insecurities mean nothing to your little girl. She just wants _you_ , scars and all."

Klaus sighed, sagging against her and placing his forehead to hers, "How is it you can still charm me even at my lowest point?"

Caroline shrugged her shoulders, staring into his eyes, "How soon you forget, I'm a people person Klaus. Besides, I've had years of practice dealing with three teenage girls on top of all the other hormonal and magically enhanced kids and teens at the school."

The reality of having her within his arms sank in, filling him with the suave, flirtatious part of himself he had long thought lost. Klaus lick his lips as he hummed, "Yes, your years of such experience could be quite helpful for me in the coming days, if not months. Perhaps there is a way I could persuade you to stick around for a while?"

The air around them changed, charging with a thick yet welcomed tension. Caroline ran her fingers over the scruff of his cheeks and through the hair at the base of his neck, tilting her head with a cheeky grin, "I'm sure we could think of something. You did say you had to thank me in person after all."

Klaus grinned at the reminder of his letter, "So I did." His gaze traveled to her lips, it had been so long ago since he last felt them move against his own, but he could still remember just the way she tastes. His heart hammered within his chest, echoing the sounds of hers as he leaned in slowly as if testing to see if his advances would be welcome or met with anger.

Caroline rose up on her toes, knowing they didn't have much time but needing to feel his lips against hers. They groaned lowly at the first touch of their tongues, hands racing over the other's hair and backs before pulling away with labored breath.

Klaus tilted his head down, smirking as he gazed at her from beneath his long lashes with heated eyes, "I think I shall enjoy this form of persuasion."

Caroline rolled her eyes, pushing his chest with a humorous scoff, "Okay big guy, slow your roll. Let's go see this through first, alright?"

Klaus inhaled deeply as he took her offered hand, allowing her to lead him to the car where her daughters waited. Where he would be placed under a spell that would hopefully keep the monster caged inside of him at bay. Where he would be taken to his siblings in the hopes that they would finally be freed of said monster. Where if all went according to plan, he would be reunited with his daughter.

XXX

" _It's been awhile  
Since I could  
Hold my head up high  
And it's been awhile  
Since I said, "I'm sorry"_

XXX

Klaus stood off to the side with Elijah, watching as his siblings, along with Caroline and her daughters, enjoying the sounds of their chatter and laughter when Rebekah smiled and excitedly announced, "They're here."

Lizzie and Josie quickly left the room, nearly running to the front of the manor Caroline had rented.

"What a wonderful welcome! And I don't even have presents this time." Marcel's booming laughter echoed from the front hall as Klaus stood frozen. His son's smiling face filled his visage as he entered the room, swiftly crossing to embrace him, "It's been too long."

Klaus could do little more than smile as the giggling twins quickly returned to the room, taking their seats on a sofa once again. His eyes stayed riveted on the doorway, holding his breath as the young vampire, Roman, escorted a beautiful sandy haired, blue eyes young woman in. Klaus felt his breath hitch as he stared into her eyes, eyes so much like his own. And then she spoke, her voice filled with so much emotion and elation that he felt his eyes well up with tears.

"Daddy?"

He felt a soft hand rest upon his arm, glancing down to see Caroline smiling with a tear-filled grin. Her touch grounded him, bring air back into his lungs, giving him the strength to take a step away from her and towards the daughter he never thought to see again. His voice trembling with relief and joy as he uttered her name.

"Hope."

And then she was flying across the room and into his long awaiting arms. Klaus was unmindful of the others, he cared not that the tears he had held at bay began to trickle over his lashes and down his cheeks. Keeping her close he pulled back, cupping her face with trembling hands, clearing his throat to speak the words he burned to say.

"I'm so sorry."

She smiled with a slight shake of her head, "Don't be Daddy. Don't."

He shoved down the need to argue, to apologize for so many years missed, for so many mistakes, instead he simply said, "I love you Hope. I missed you more than I could ever tell."

Her laugh was filled with happiness as she threw her arms around him, "I love you too Daddy."

As the night wound down the group began to disburse into small groups scattered around the massive living room all the while staying within sight of each other. Klaus sat alone on a small sofa, sipping a bourbon peacefully when a shadow crossed before him.

"Is this seat taken?" A softly grinning Caroline motioned her tumbler towards the empty space beside him.

"You know I'll always have room for you Love." He spoken gently.

His smile matched hers as she sat close beside him and whispered, "Good." into his ear, placing a soft kiss to his cheek before nudging his arm up and settling against him as he wrapped it around her shoulders.

Klaus felt a contentment he had never felt within all the years he had roamed the Earth as he sat cuddled upon the sofa with the woman he hoped to entice to stick around for many, many years to come. Watching his family and hers, joined together under the same roof for the first time as they all engaged in various states of conversation and laughter.

Though his eyes narrowed at the new face, the young male vampire who had accompanied Caroline to dig him out of his deep, dark hole. The one who seemed to be in the background of every step of this entire endeavor. The one who was now seated close to his daughter and rarely left her side. A growl resonated lowly within his chest, the one who was constantly staring at her as if she held the sun, moon and stars.

Klaus turned his head away from the scene before him as he felt a light pressure upon his knee, glancing at Caroline questioningly.

Leaning in closer she whispered low enough so that only he could hear, even with all the advanced hearing within the room, "Calm down. He's good for her, just as she is for him. They've been through and seen each other through a lot. Don't start rocking the boat on day one."

"I wasn't planning on it."

The innocent look upon his face didn't fool her one bit, "I'm serious Klaus."

"As am I Love." He smiled, pulling her in close and resting his chin on top of her head with a smirk as he glared at the boy once again thinking, _she said nothing of day two_.

XXX

* * *

So there it is! My thoughts on how the end of The Originals could be. It's probably not what you expected, I know it's not what I intended to write, but I heard that song on the radio the other day and this is what my mind went with. Seriously, listen to the song if you haven't, it really will help with the "Klaus feels" for this one.

Hope you enjoyed! See you all again for Day 4…smut day ;)


	36. Simple Pleasure

**25 Days of Klaroline 2017- Day 4- NSFW-** _Simple Pleasure._

* * *

.

.

.

With her take-charge attitude and no-nonsense demeanor, the employees around her had no idea just how far off their boss's mind drifted as she ordered them about.

"The tables should be spaced an even four feet apart. The guests shouldn't have to shift their seats every time someone walks pass."

They heard her sharp spoken demand, and each felt the heat from her ice blue eyes, all the while never guessing that her mind was trapped in the phantom feel of calloused hands and a stubbled cheek gliding across the smooth skin of her thighs.

Of the way his eyes would shine with a love that bordered on possessive, a love that never failed to cause her heart to race, as he gently held her face, their heated breath mingling with lips just inches apart.

Nibbling her lower lip, she swallowed down her stuttering breath. Her eyes took in the pair of workers at each perfectly spaced table as they carefully laid the black lace runners over the pristine white tablecloths.

Another more risqué black laced number flashed in her mind's eye. Clenching her thighs, a flush infusing her cheeks, she hurried the workers along with the placements of the centerpieces as her mind began to lay out a special surprise for later that night.

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He stood on the balcony overlooking the courtyard. Business men and women alike mingling all around him, each trying desperately to gain his attention, as well as a massive chunk of his bank account.

His passive countenance and steely far off gaze tempted only those with a spine of steel to approach him. Panhandling their ideas and products only to turn and leave with a sense of shame as he paid them no quarter with barely a grunt in reply.

Powerful business tycoon he was, with most men wanting to be him while the women held an envious desire of the one who held his heart, no one would have batted an eyelash at the knowledge of the control he exerted behind closed doors. Yet their shock would have drawn them breathless, wonderment filling their emptied lungs, to discover how his thoughts wandered to the control he relinquished to his lady-love with unfathomable delight. How his mind took insurmountable pleasure reminiscing on the softer tones of their private moments. Her gentle hands and soft touch as she expertly plied the razor to his face. Her darkened silhouette as she slowly dropped her robe to the floor, each delectable inch of her exquisite body laid bare for only his eyes to feast upon. That the trust she handed him without a second thought was more of an aphrodisiac than any fruits or foods combined. That her utterly desirable body came in at a close second when compared to her faith and love for him.

His eyes glanced to the timepiece she had gifted him with this past Christmas. A strange yet exciting twinge churning in his gut. He had spent more than enough time mingling with this worthless lot, enough that his brothers could not accuse him of not trying to further their business ventures.

He needed to see her, needed to feel her silky-smooth skin wrapped around him. Needed to feel her breath blowing across his neck as their bodies twined and writhed together.

Without a second thought or glance he cut through the crowd, paying no mind to those who would prostrate themselves for his attention. With each step only one word, one thought, one feeling pounded through his being.

 _Caroline._

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She met him at the door, the second his briefcase hit the entryway table, he was pressed against the wall. Her scent filling his lungs as her supple body moved against his in purposeful waves. One hand curved around her lower back as his other held a fistful of her glorious golden hair, his eyes rolling back as her scantily clad hips brushed against his straining erection.

"Whatever did I do to deserve such a stunningly warm welcome home?" He rumbled.

Caroline wrapped her arms around his neck, grinning up at him coquettishly, "Can't a wife just miss her husband?"

"If the gossip I overheard amongst the women today is to be believed, then no. That's quite out of the ordinary." He smirked cheekily with a waggle of his brows.

Caroline playfully rolled her eyes, "I'm sure whatever you heard was spoken loudly and only after they seen you were close enough to hear in hopes to tempt you."

Klaus smiled down at her warmly, "You know I only have eyes for you Caroline."

"Oh, I know." She grinned proudly, "But that's beside the point and really, when have we ever been _ordinary_?" Her voice lowered seductively as her fingertips danced along the side of his neck.

His response was lost in a series of groans as she pulled back the collar of his overcoat, pushing it off his shoulders and to the floor, allowing her lips and tongue the room to pay homage to his neck as her body began moving purposefully along his once again.

Klaus was so lost in the sensations she brought him that he hardly noticed as she led him deeper into their home. Her nimble fingers working at the buttons of his dress shirt and tie as they went, leaving them both to hang open over his chiseled chest.

Coming to a stop once they reached the center of their bedroom, Caroline took a step back to enjoy the fruits of her labor. She always loved the way the subtle muscles of his upper body flexed, a fact that he employed to his advantage quite often, and the way the necklaces he wore hidden beneath his high collars and ties laid to rest against his upper chest. Her pink tongue swiped across her lips as she recalled how much she loved grabbing ahold of them to tug him closer in the heat of their passion.

As she took him in, Klaus's eyes ran over his wife's scantily clad form for the first time since arriving home. Her luscious breasts were pressed high and full, encased with the confines of a black laced bra. As his eyes traveled down her bare midsection to her matching black panties and black stocking covered legs he smirked knowingly at the light goosebumps forming across her skin.

"You look good enough to _eat_. Had I known what a delectable feast that awaited me at home, I would have left that tiresome meeting ages ago. Though I am curious Love," He closed the space between, his hand catching the blue silk scarf hanging around her neck, letting it slide between his fingers before releasing it, allowing it to flutter back into place, "While I love when you wear my clothing, this piece clashes with your chosen attire."

Caroline giggled as she spun on her heels, delighting in his sharp intake of breath as he took in the soft, black ruffles covering her bottom.

Klaus was always fascinated by every inch of his wife's body, but her keen sense of fashion and knowing how to pick articles of clothing that accentuated her glorious form never ceased to surprise him. A low growl escaped his lips as he followed after her, intending to take hold of her only to have her spin them around, pushing him to the bed.

As Klaus bounced on the bed, propping himself up on his elbows, Caroline crawled over him her lips in a playful pout as she pulled the scarf from around her neck, "I thought you wanted to know what this was for?"

Settling her body over his, her hips rocking enticingly against his, she slowly pulled the scarf taunt in her hands with a pointed curve of her eyebrow.

Catching onto her inquiry, Klaus thrusted his hips, smirking as her head fell back with a moan, "Greedy little thing, aren't you?" Before she could utter a word, he sat up and quickly changed their position, clasping her wrists together with one hand as his other slowly took the scarf from her. "Did you not have me tied to this very bed last night?"

Her chest heaved, and her body tingled with how he had turned the tables on her and the knowledge of just what he was going to do.

Seeing the acceptance and excitement blooming within her shining blue depths Klaus placed her hands above her head, looking at her pointedly to hold still as he began to wrap the scarf around the same bedpost she had tied him to the night before.

Her cheeks were rosy with anticipation, her chest rising and falling rapidly with every breath she took as Klaus knelt back on his heels to survey his lovely bride.

His cock throbbed within his slacks at the sensual curves of her laid out for him. Reaching towards her, he slowly feathered a single digit across the side of her cheek, down her neck, between her voluptuous breasts before pausing to dip within her navel bringing a small gasp from her lips.

Pulling back, much to her disappointment by the pout on her lips, Klaus removed his shirt and tie tossing them forgotten to the floor before returning to slowly peel her ruffled panties down her body, flicking them over his shoulder. His eyes followed the movements of his hands as they slowly skated up her legs to open her thighs wide to his penetrating gaze.

Caroline whimpered as his thumbs grazed her lower lips, her hips bucking in hopes to move him to where she needed him most.

Klaus chuckled as he settled between her legs, his breath coasting against her heated skin, "Patience Love."

At the first scrape of his scruffy cheek along her inner thighs, her breath hitched, her mind reeling at the thoughts of what was to come. Placing her legs over his shoulders Klaus paused, staring up at her with his lips just inched from her center, his breath teasing her with it's hot light touch.

Caroline licked her lips in anticipation, glancing down to him expectantly. The moment her eyes locked with his, his mouth descended upon her causing her hips to thrust upwards with the first swipe of his tongue. His hands held the sides of her hips, holding her body still as he quickened the pace of his tongue. Using one hand to hold her still, Klaus slide his other underneath her, inching closer to her heated core. Her back arched as his fingers began swirling around her entrance before he eased them inside her, curling to hit her honeyed depths as he wrapped his lips around her clit.

Klaus paused his motions, his eyes blaring up at her with such want that it nearly scorched her to her core. Caroline groaned, her eyes falling shut as he held her body still, the tips of his fingers pressed agonizingly against her favored spot without moving.

And still he waited. He waited until she was trembling with need, ready to demand, beg and plead for him to just _move._

Her eyes flew open, glaring down at him to find a meaningful smirk within his eyes, her nails digging into her palms at the sight of his only warning.

And then he moved. His fingertips thrusting within her core, curling to hit her in just the right spot over and over again, his lips closing around her clit with his tongue rapidly swiping and swirling.

She felt her orgasm rushing upon her with the force of a tidal wave, crashing against her every pore as her mouth fell open a whimpering cry.

Klaus groaned as her essence flowed onto his tongue, the vibrations causing her toes to curl and her heels to dig into his back as he rode out her glorious high.

He had planned to take this slow, the entire drive home his mind had worked him into a tailspin over all the things he would do to her. But having her here, her taste coating his lips, her body writhing in pleasure he knew such thing would have to wait.

Before Caroline had a moment to recover, Klaus had her wrists unbound, her bra unhooked and off her body before the scarf even hit the floor.

Catching onto his lustful cravings, she scrambled to unlink his belt, their hands working together frantically to pull his slacks from his body.

The moment they were off, her back hit the mattress with a bounce. Her thighs and arms wrapping around him as he plunged his throbbing shaft deep inside her trembling walls.

Her nails scoured his back at his relentless thrusts. His body trembling in pleasure as he braced himself on his forearm, his hand cupping her breast as his fingers lightly pinched and flicked her hardened peaks.

Caroline wanted to shout, to scream out her pleasure but found it all too intense to do more than let out harsh breaths as she rode the waves of ecstasy he invoked. His lips crashed to hers with a harsh groan, his thrusts becoming deeper and sharper as their ends neared.

Their bodies trembled and shook as their orgasms washed over them, hands grappling tightly against sweat-slicked skin.

As they laid together in the aftermath, their hearts still hammering as Caroline's fingers carded through his hair, she hummed thoughtfully as she caught sight of the discarded scarf, "After we can move our legs again, how would you feel about being blindfolded?"

Klaus turned his head up to look at her, his eyes filling with need once again as a salacious smirk grew over his lips, "With you as my keeper, I imagine I'd quite enjoy the possibility."

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So there it is. The End. See you again for Day 6 or 7, depends which I can get finished in time. Also, there are two aesthetics that go along with this story. If you go to my Tumblr page, same name as here, you can find them there.


	37. Life's Better With Pie

**25 Days of Klaroline- Day 6 Kids-** _ **Life is Better with Pie**_ **\- AH**

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Klaus shivered in disgust as he quietly closed the door to the Salvatore Boarding House and crept off the front porch and back to his car. He probably should have called first, but in all the situations he imagined finding his sister in upon his return, it was decidedly not nearly naked on the sofa with his oldest friend, Stefan, her fiancé.

Though he did reckon that calling her only two days prior to say that he was coming back to town after a four-year absence, with no exact date in mind, left him open to stumbling upon such atrocities. In his defense it wasn't as if he had planned to return. Ever. This impromptu homecoming had been purely sporadic and brought on by an alcohol induced nostalgia after witnessing his mate Marcel get married while surrounded by the happy bride and grooms families.

Shaking his head with an irritated sigh, Klaus placed his suitcase in the back seat of his car and drove off. His mind swirling with all the reasons he left and chose to stay away.

As he neared the town square, he pulled off the street to park in the main downtown parking lot, deciding to walk about and see if the small town of Mystic Falls had changed at all in his absence.

For the most part as he walked with his hands shoved in his pockets people gave him a wide berth. While others did a double take, whispering behind hands with their heads close together as others gasped before pulling out phones to spread the news; the town's illegitimate bad-boy, the bastard and scoundrel, the no-account brother killer had returned.

It was only took a few more blocks for his phone to buzz.

 _Esther 11:45 AM: I must hear it from one of my bridge companions that my son has come home? You have much to explain my son. You will be here for dinner promptly at 6PM this evening._

Klaus stepped off to the side, standing in the shadows of the alley next to a group of shops as the ever-present dots in the text screen showed his Mother was still typing.

 _Esther 11:49 AM: You know he is no longer here, nor does his ghost haunt these hallowed walls. I miss my son. Please say that you'll come._

Klaus rolled his eyes with a scoff, wondering just how long it took her to decide how to word her latest text. How many times had she typed his name only to erase it, knowing that he hated to even think the name _Mikael._

He had learned from his sister that his step-father had blessedly left this Earth, freeing those he enjoyed tormenting, just over a year ago having died of liver failure. Though he had not shown up for the services of one of the town's sheriffs, Rebekah had claimed that they were lovely but the ominous weight that always followed his step-father around had been lifted.

There had never been any love-loss between him and Mikael, but after that fateful night when his world quite literally came crashing down around him, things had only gotten worse. Which lead him to flee town shortly after he had healed from the injuries he sustained during the car crash. The crash that had only happened because of yet another intense fight with Mikael. The crash that had happened shortly after he had snatched the keys from the hook, barreling out of the driveway like a bat out of hell. The crash that had taken his little brother Henrik's life.

Shaking the gloomy thoughts that always kept him running from this town and all it stood for from his head, Klaus replied to his Mother that he would be there before pocketing his phone and stepping from the alley.

He didn't make it far before yet another reason for his lengthy absence appeared. There just on the other side of the street was _her_. The one woman in the entire world he could never possess but had always wished he could.

Caroline Forbes. The very reason his heart hammered within his chest. Strange that even after all this time she still held the same effects on him. She was beautiful, the sun shining down upon her, lighting her up like a glorious gift for all to see.

He loved her then and it came to no surprise that he loved her still.

The crowds parted as if they knew he wished to have a better glimpse of her in the light as he stood hidden within the shadows across the street.

Only, he wished they never had.

Life had to be mocking him. Here he was, ready to face all that he had left behind and yet there she was, walking and laughing with another man who's back was to him leaving Caroline in full view. Klaus felt as if a dagger was being shoved through his chest, Mikael's fists and kicks hurt less than the sight before him.

A very vibrant, and a very heavily pregnant, Caroline.

His feet hadn't moved so quickly in years, knocking into people without a backwards glance.

There he went, running yet again.

The commotion from across the street captured Caroline's attention. Glancing to see what all the yelling was about she could have sworn she saw a familiar head of wavy dirty-blonde curls.

"What do you think all the hubbub is about?" Her companion asked, craning his neck to see.

Shaking off her nostalgia and wishful thinking, she turned with a shrug, "Who knows."

"Well let's be glad whatever it was didn't happen over here. One bump and you'll topple over. It would take a team calling in a crane to lift you back up again!"

"Ha-ha. Very funny Kol." She glared at her friend who was holding back a laugh, "Let's just get back to your car. After that doctors' appointment and lunch, I need to rest my feet and take a nap. Carrying twins is no easy feat."

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As Klaus sped past the _Leaving Mystic Falls_ sign, with it's happily emblazed, _Visit Us Again Soon,_ he had slammed on his brakes. His Mother's heartbroken face glaring guilty in his mind. He spun his car around, vowing to have her blasted dinner before leaving town again but this time without coming back.

From all that he remembered of growing up in the large house, his Mother was always one for putting on a show and making a spectacle of any given opportunity. He had been surprised that it was only her waiting for him at the door, ready to have a quiet meal with him alone.

Klaus leaned his head back against the driver's seat of his car with a groan. _Quiet_ would have been the operative word. Her questions of where he had been, what he'd been doing and why he never called in the past four years had only gotten harder to answer with her sitting there in front of him and him being sorely ill-prepared for them. It wasn't as if he had been doing anything illegal, far from it in fact, it was simply because no excuse sounded good enough as to why he had been avoiding nearly everyone here. He had asked for a drink only to find out that after Mikael had passed, she had drained every ounce of liquor from the entire estate.

" _It's the devil's drink Niklaus. It has the capabilities to turn the nicest man into a monster."_

After all he had dealt with today, he was in dire need of a drink, which was why he was risking staying in town long enough to go into The Grill that he was parked outside of and have one drink before leaving for the closet hotel out of town.

He shut and locked his car, keeping his head down as he trudged to the bar, hoping he could get in and out without anyone recognizing him.

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Caroline huffed in irritation as she walked out of The Grill only to find her cab had left, "I knew I shouldn't have paid him first." She shifted her bag of food to pull her phone out of her purse, ready to give the cab company an earful. Life could be easier for her if only her doctor hadn't restricted nearly every facet of her life. She was pregnant with twins, not carrying the next messiah. Why she could ride in a car with someone but wasn't allowed to drive one herself was beyond her understanding. It was in moments like this, when she woke up from her longer than planned nap, s _tarving_ and craving a greasy burger and fries, that life got tough.

She had decided against calling the many people she had on speed dial, not wanting to hear how bar food was not the healthiest choice for her pregnant body, and opted to call a cab instead. That way no one would have to know. Heaven help the next of her friends that gets in her way of eating her cheeseburger and fries. If she had to deal with Rebekah and her health food crazed fiancé it would all be too soon.

Smiling in triumph when she finally managed to get her phone from her bag, her world was suddenly turned upside down as someone knocked into her.

Visions of the crane coming to help her up as Kol had joked earlier flashed through her mind as she squeezed her eyes shut, dropping her food to the ground in an effort to wrap her arms around her overly large stomach and protect her unborn children.

Klaus realized his mistake only seconds after it was too late, and he had crashed into the very woman he had wanted to avoid. Banding his arms gently around her lower back, he pulled her in close to his body as her food spilled to the ground.

Caroline felt strong arms wrapped around her instead of the hard ground she had been expecting, bringing with them a faintly familiar scent. Blushing in embarrassment Caroline pulled back, the stranger's arms still helping to keep her steady as she glanced up to thank them. The face she was met with was one she had thought about over and over again for the past four years, shocking her with his vivid greyish-blue eyes.

"Klaus."

"In the flesh Sweetheart. Though if I had known my mere presence would garner such a reaction from you I would have called out a warning. No need to fall to your knees at the sight of my handsome face."

Caroline scoffed, "Maybe if you weren't so handsy with the ladies this wouldn't have happened. You're supposed to _ask_ a girl out _before_ you try sweeping her off her feet." She rolled her eyes with a pleased grin at how easily they had fallen back into their flirty-banter. And then the passed four years without his wit and charm fell over her, wiping the smile from her face as she whispered, "You left."

Klaus dropped his arms to his sides, his voice just as low yet ten times heavier than hers, "I know."

"You just _left_. No phone calls, no explanations. Here one day and gone the next." Her tearful blue eyes pierced his heart, "I thought we were friends Klaus. I mean, we were there for each other through _everything,_ in a way that no one but us would ever understand. Until we weren't. Because you left."

He had known coming back here that this conversation was coming, that it was long past overdue. Taking a steadying breath, he looked straight into her gorgeous blue eyes, "Of everyone I left behind when I took off, you were the one I regretted leaving the most."

"Then why didn't you call me?" She pressed her lips tightly, cursing the pregnancy hormones that made her want to cry one minute and yell the next. She could do very little about her eyes showing her sadness and anger.

Klaus sighed, his shoulders slumping, "Because you would have talked me into coming back."

"You don't know that. You can't know that because you never called."

He looked at her pointedly with a small smirk, "Really?"

Caroline huffed, brushing her hair back into place, "Okay fine. Maybe I would have tried. But still! That's no excuse."

"I _am_ sorry Caroline." Klaus smiled half-heartedly, "But look at you, you look lovely and seem to have done alright for yourself in my absence."

She scoffed, folding her arms on the top of her huge, rounded belly, "Right. Sure. Okay. If you call falling for some guy from out of town, getting knocked up with twins, going to tell said jackass only to find him in bed at his hotel, _with his wife_ , doing alright for myself then fine. Oh! And let's not forget the shit-kicker, the asshat actually sent court papers not even a week later giving up all his parental rights. So yup!" She popped with a sarcastic grin, "Doing just fine all by myself. Not to mention that my cab took off, you know, since my doctor is a quack and won't let me drive, leaving me here to try and find a way home but then you came along, nearly knocked me down and killed my food."

Klaus's head was spinning with all that she had told him. He had forgotten how much information Caroline tended to ramble off during one of her patented rants. As well as how much he adored them.

"Since I caused you to lose you food and you happen to be stuck here without a ride, why don't you allow me to reorder your meal and drive you home?"

"Well…" She pretending to think it over, knowing full well she wouldn't pass up the opportunity to spend some time with him again, "it _is_ the least you could do."

"Fantastic." Klaus grinned, "Why don't you wait in my car while I go in and place the order."

As he helped Caroline into the front passenger seat she began, "I'll take…"

"A double bacon cheeseburger, extra bacon, no onion and the pickles on the side, with a large basket of fries."

"You remember my order? After all this time." She grinned at his bashful smile, "Impressive."

"Yes well, I've come to enjoy the extra bacon slice to eat after pulling it from the burger myself."

She nodded, "It's the best way to eat extra bacon. Bacon with just a hint of a burger taste."

Sharing a laugh Klaus stood only to have her grab his arm.

"Wait! Get me a piece of chocolate cream pie too." His eyes widened at her near shout, causing her to scoff, "What? I'm eating for three here! Plus, Matt will only let me get away with the occasional burger and fries but if I dared to order pie too? The whole gang would rain down on me!"

"Your secret is safe with me." He smirked before heading inside.

With the hopes of being invited inside to eat with her, Klaus ordered the same for himself. Not even realizing that he had completely forgotten the drink he had been in such dire need of or caring that he had just ate with his Mother.

His risk had paid off and he had found himself seated in the kitchen of the Forbes' residence. He remembered quite well how silent the house was and what a comfort it had been to have a place to lay low. Even when Caroline's mother had been home, she would just grimace and nod at him, gabbing him a blanket and pillow to take refuge on their sofa. She knew all too well the horrors Klaus had had to deal with at home since she had worked with Mikael. But this silence was different.

Clearing his throat, he spoke softly, gaging her reaction, "I was sorry to hear about your mother Caroline."

Caroline inhaled deeply, she had been used to hearing such sentiments, but it had been a little over two years now. "Thanks. And thank for the flowers you sent, they were lovely. Even if you didn't send a return address for the thank you card."

Klaus playfully rolled his eyes at her jab, ignoring it completely, "I'm sure she'd be happy to see you with the little ones."

Her scoff surprised him so much that he placed his forkful of pie to the plate.

"Oh yeah, she'd be _so_ proud of me. Pregnant and alone at twenty-three and an official college drop out." Chewing a piece of her pie angrily, she swallowed and set her spoon down forcefully, "At least the house is paid off. But, and I swear on all that's holy and unholy that if you breathe a word of what I'm about to say I will make your life a living, breathing hell Mikaelson."

Klaus held up his palms, "No need for the threats of violence Sweetheart, you know I'd never spill your secrets."

"It's not a threat but a promise." She pointed her spoon at him as if it were a weapon causing him to chuckle. Not only at her unusual weapon of choice but how she insisted that a spoon was the proper utensil for pie eating.

"You have my word Caroline."

Seeing the truth in his eyes she deflated, "So between your sister and brother and the rest of the busybodies, they all feel that me living here and ready to raise two children alone is just too much for me."

"And I'm sure you took that rather well." He snarked dryly, well aware of the havoc she could bring when told she could not do something.

"Yeah well, I didn't, at first. Now I'm starting to think they are right. _Not_ that I want to live with any of _them._ I don't care how big the boarding house is, I'm sick and tired of walking in on my two best friends going at it."

Klaus grimaced at the reminder of earlier in the day.

Caroline leaned back laughing, "Saw it for yourself, did ya?"

"Yes and I'd quite like to forget the image thank you very much."

Giving him a free pass when normally she would have heckled him incessantly, she figured seeing it for himself was punishment enough, "It's not money that's the issue. I have plenty of saved up between my Mom and Dad's life insurance plans. It's more the upkeep of the place that's getting to me. And you _know_ how I love to clean. I'm just stuck on what to do. Do I hire a housekeeper? It seems like a waste of money when I could just rent out a room here cheaply with the understanding that light house work is involved. But then what do I put in the stupid ad? _Room for rent in a very nice neighborhood. Plenty of space, cheap rent and light household duties required. Must be able to sleep through anything since live-in owner is about to have twins?"_ She tossed her hands in the air, "I can just see them lining up now!"

"Don't my siblings and your friends come by to help?"

"Yeah for the heavy stuff and more of the lighter things since my stupid quack doctor put me on restriction. But if I tell them how hard it all really is they will be either packing me up or worse, moving themselves in. Then I'll never be rid of them! Don't get me wrong, I love them but…"

"Sometimes they can be quite the trying handfuls." Klaus supplied.

"Exactly! See?" She grinned at him, "This is why I've need you here. You're the only one that gets it."

A snap decision was made the instant he heard her utter the words, _I need you._ Klaus placed his hand on the top of hers with a gentle squeeze, "Well then, it's a good thing I'm not going anywhere then isn't it?"

"Really? You're staying?" Her squeal of delight and beaming smile warmed him in a way he hadn't felt in so long. Since he was with last her if he were being honest.

"Yes."

"Good." She smiled with a goofy grin, "I need a sane person in all this madness. Everyone else is trying to shove some sort of green nasty smelling, vomit inducing smoothies down my throat."

Caroline quickly tired after they ate, Klaus left with a promise to see her tomorrow. When he came to the fork in the road that lead towards the Boarding House and his Mother's, he veered left to stay far away from whatever his sister was getting up to with Stefan.

He smiled unknowingly, feeling a strange sense of peace the entire drive to his Mother's, as his mind was already coming up with the ways he could talk Caroline into allowing him to stay with her. He knew she would want to say yes, but she would fight him tooth and nail before doing so. He would have to make it seem as though they were helping each other and not just him helping her.

He could possibly use the fact that he did not wish to stay in the home where Mikael had lived, nor did he want to live with Stefan and Rebekah. She would understand both those reasonings, yet he wasn't under any assumption that it wouldn't be a tough battle, going head to head with Caroline always was. But he was confident that it would work out, much like how he was feeling confident that coming home had been the right decision.

A scene began blooming inside his mind as he pulled into the driveway. Of Caroline and him raising two beautiful children together. He quickly dashed the thoughts aside, there was no telling if she still felt the way that he had thought she had all those years ago. Besides, it would be hard enough to convince her to allow him to move in. Harder still if she wrongly assumed he was only sticking around out of pity.

Klaus furrowed his brow as he stopped the car in front of his Mother's, chuckling to himself over the upcoming conversation to be had with Caroline tomorrow, "It wouldn't hurt to bring some pie along just in case."

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I'm dreadfully sorry that this was a few days late! I do still plan to get Day 7 up as well, I just have a few more things to complete for it.

Thank you so much for reading! I know it's short, don't forget to leave your support. ;)


	38. The Benefactor and Her Charge

**The Benefactor and Her Charge. Part 1.**

Written for the lovely Withyouandthemoon for the Klaroline Winter Wonderland Gift Exchange.

 **Summary:** _Takes place just before Klaus comes to Mystic Falls to break his curse. AU. Caroline is not a vampire or from Mystic Falls._

 _With little to no leads to aid him in breaking his curse, Klaus turned on his charm to seduce a young Irish witch, who's family had been whispered among the supernatural world to know of a spell that could bring him just what he needs to find the doppelganger and finally break his curse. Only once the spell is cast, it doesn't bring him exactly what he expected, but so much more. Things he never knew of or thought that he needed._

 _Caroline, a mysterious woman from another time and place, had thought her life had been lost to darkness forever. When a shimmering light pulled her from her dark and lonely prison, she never imagined the chance to right her wrongs would bring her the hope and opportunity for a life far beyond her wildest imaginations._

 _Will Klaus chose power and lose the brightest light to ever grace his life? Will Caroline chose to stay or will she opt to return home and face her past once her services are complete?_

 _Only time will tell if the two will see and take what's standing right in front of them._

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Her palms were sweating, her knees trembling as she eased her way into the darkened study. The creature of her nightmares stood before a blazing fire, sipping a glass of whiskey as if he wasn't holding her entire world in the palm of his hands. What was left of it anyways.

"I do hope you have good news for me. It's been quite the trying day." He sighed dramatically as he turned the tumbler in his hand, staring at it as if mesmerized by its liquid catching the light from the fire. "It's put me in a very, shall we say, volatile mood. Fortunate for me, I have just the people to take it out on." His head turned towards her with a vicious smirk, "Though I don't suppose you'll agree with me."

She wanted to sneer at his mocking attempt to frighten her, she wanted to be brave like her Father and Brother who had fought valiantly until their dying breath and now laid dead in the field outside of their home. She wanted to stun him with her magic, race down to the cellar and free her sobbing Mother. But she knew she couldn't. Even as powerful as she was, she was no match for an Original Vampire.

"You'd never make it out of here alive Sweetheart, and neither would your dear Mother." His imposing body flashed in front of her as he guessed her train of thought. She wanted to gag at the fake charming smile on his face, as he continued to mock her while tapping his chin, "Well, perhaps she would be partially alive, just no longer a creature your coven would welcome back home."

She held back her shutter of revulsion, this wasn't the first time Klaus had threatened to turn them if he didn't get what he wanted. A dire fate indeed for any witch.

Taking a steading breath, the young red-haired witch held out her satchel, "I gu…guess then it's fortunate that I have what you've been looking for."

His eyes lit up with such excitement that she could easily remember how he had drew her in and fooled her with his boyish charms. As he began pouring over the strange text, she edged her way closer to the table. "I have to warn you; this spell is nothing like I or the others have ever seen before. There could be drastic consequences to enact it."

Klaus's lip curled, and his eyes flared as he spat, "Don't speak to me of consequences little witch."

Her body trembled under the weight of his glare, her eyes widening as the dark veins slithered beneath his reddening eyes. "I…I understand you wish to find those responsible as well as the things you need to break your curse but this…this spell…" She attempted to get him to see reason, "Opening a portal, crossing realms, pulling something out that has been hidden deep within the very land it comes from, we have no idea what we are messing with. Whatever this thing is you wish to gain, it had to be locked away for a purpose."

Klaus clasped his hands behind his back, a playful grin upon his lips that she knew only meant trouble as she began backing away from his advance.

"Locked away for a purpose you say? Much like the other half of my very being was stripped and locked away from me? Much like your poor, sweet Mother is locked away at this very moment?" His sickeningly sweet breath brushed over her face, bringing a devilish smile to his face as she flinched, squeezing her eyes shut as if it would hide her from a monster, "Where she will stay if you do not preform the spell and bring the artifact to me. And yet…" He brushed a finger down her cheek before humming as he backed away from her, "I think some proper motivation is needed."

Her eyes flew open as he snapped his fingers, calling in the vampires who had been waiting just outside the door. The young witch watched in horror as one of them threw her crying Mother to the floor while the other bit into his wrist, grinning evilly as he snatched the back of her Mother's neck and force fed her his blood.

"Well then," Klaus announced with a clap of his hands, as if he was hosting a dinner party and not signing their death sentence, "Now that all our guests have arrived let's begin, shall we?"

She scoffed, brushing past his offered arm and stormed over to the table, her mind cursing all the power she held within her veins as well as the old wives' tales that had been past down through her family from generation to generation. If she could travel through time, she would gladly go back and destroy the strange traveler that had courted and married her great-great-how ever many great's-grandmother. It was he who told the stories of distant lands and far-off realms. It was her very ancestor, and those who had whispered and spread the tales, who had sentenced their blood to death at the hands of the deranged Original vampire.

As she began working the spell, weaving her magics to break the barriers between worlds, a single tear rolled down her cheeks as she realized the truth. She had no one to blame but herself. It was she who had been taken in by Klaus's charm and wit. She who filled in the blanks to the stories and set in motion happenings that she had no iota of what would come to be.

Klaus grinned wildly as a golden spark began flickering in and out of existence in the center of the room, growing larger with each word the young witch chanted and every perfectly timed motion of her hands. He watched for her nod, biting into his hand to toss a few drops of his blood into the golden lights, linking and binding whatever was on the other side to him as the spell called for.

Not a moment later the scent of witch's blood hit his nostrils, calling him to taste her but he held back, knowing there would be time for that later, as she sliced her hand, tossing a few drops of her own blood in to open the strange and bright portal. The odd magic trapped within her veins sent the sparks into a flurry, colors of all shades began to swirl faster and faster, growing larger and brighter, the sounds of it all deafening to even the vampire's ears. A darkened shape, larger than what Klaus had been expecting, fell from the center of the portal with a thud.

The next instant everything stopped.

The room fell silent, with not even the witches' breathing as the light from the fire cast a glow over the space where the portal last stood.

There in it's place was a filthy and unconscious young woman. Her blonde hair, ratted and dirty, her limbs covered in grime and her clothing nothing but old tattered rags.

The elder witch gasped in awe, breaking the silence, "You did it Deirdre. You actually did it. The stories were true. I can't believe they were actually true."

Klaus's eyes flared in anger as he stomped over to the old woman, "You sought to trick me! You were told to bring an artifact that would assist in my quest, yet you brought me nothing but a ragged girl."

The young red-haired witch rushed to stop him as she caught onto his intent, "No! Wait! You don't understand! Please Klaus! Just listen!"

"I understand all too well! And I will hear none of your lies!" Klaus shouted as one of the vampires latched onto the young witch's arms holding her back, "You brought yourself someone to try and help you cause, a sad and pathetic attempt to save your lives seeing as the girl is of no use to you. Well," He sneered harshly, "with the bargain severed, so shall your Mother's heart be from her body."

"No!" Deirdre screamed, fighting wildly against the hold on her as Klaus yanked her Mother's heart firmly from her chest. She ceased her fighting, her mouth opening with a silent cry of agony. She would have fell to the floor as her Mother's dead body did had it not been for the vampire's tight hold around her. Not even the vampire blood in her Mother's system would cure such a malady.

"Get rid of this trash." Klaus sneered at the vampire beside him, kicking the body on the floor as he dropped the heart before strutting his way towards the quivering young witch. "You broke our deal Sweetheart."

Deirdre trembled as she was passed to the Original, knowing full well that she was about to die but welcoming it with open arms. She had nothing left. Her family dead at this monster's hands. A monster that she had unknowingly welcomed into their lives. Fitting for her that she too should meet her end at those same hands.

"Have you any last words little witch?" Klaus asked in a faux soothing tone.

Her green eyes glared at him with what little strength she had left as her fiery hair billowed around her, "I did not fail you, but it would seem my old stories were true. You know very little of what has been brought here, what it shall cost you."

Klaus shrugged his shoulders as his fangs dropped, "It's of little consequence to me. The vile little thing shall meet her end shortly after your dried husk hits the floor."

Deirdre closed her eyes, hoping for peace on the Other Side. Her last thought as she was drained dry was of how fitting it was of her Grandmother to name her after an Irish tale of a tragic heroine. Deirdre of the Sorrows. Aye, she could only hope that even deeper sorrows would meet the evil Original not long after her death.

Klaus dropped the pale, dead girl to the floor, watching as the vampire hefted her body over his shoulder, "You want me to come back for that one?" The vampire asked, nodding towards the newly rousing girl.

Klaus smirked, "No, I shall handle her myself."

The door closed behind the vampire, leaving Klaus and the strange woman alone. Her eyes just beginning to flutter as he began advancing towards her with the intent to get this night over with and kill her quickly. Her eyes locked on his, momentarily rendering him speechless at their swirling, crystal blue depths. His breath left him in a gasp at the beauty she held beneath what looked like years of dirt and grime. His mind screamed for him to stop his course, while his age-old paranoia rallied for him to do away with this unknown and possible threat.

Ever a creature of habit and distrust, Klaus stayed his course, picking back up with his heavy tread to end the girl once and for all.

Caroline's mind foggily came to long before her body caught up with its newly acquired freedom. Last she remembered, what seemed to be decades ago, was when they placed her within her cell deep within the bowels of the Land. Her wrists chained to the thick stones, left with nothing but her magic to sustain her. In the beginning she had been aware of everything. Every little creature that came near to try and nibble on her bare toes, every rock that tumbled in the cave as the grounds above shifted and changed over time. Then her mind began to waver, time was meaningless within her pit of despair. Her only company was her memories, both the good and the horrible, until those too began to fade into the distance leaving her alone to drift in a sea of darkness.

Darkness that was not of her making. Choices that were not of her choosing. Wrongs and rights that she played a hand in, yet had no say nor control over.

In the distance Caroline swore she heard the muffled screaming of a young woman, a young woman who's voice somehow pulled at her heartstrings, yet she had no clue as to why. Voices started to become clearer. A deep and strangely accented male voice bellowed his rage as the young woman's voice trembled in fearful bravery.

The feeling of her body began to come back in slow increments as her mind began to recall the powerful pulling of the swirling vortex that pulled her out of her cage only to drop her flat onto the floor. Where she was she knew not, but she felt the stirrings of the familiar pull of one of her newly appointed Charges.

Hope began to blossom and bloom within her tired breast. She had a chance! A chance to right her perceived wrong doings of the past and make someone's life all the better for it. Whether it was the Grand Dame herself who gifted her with such a chance after so long, Caroline cared not.

This time would be different, this time she would not fail in bettering the life of those placed within her care. This time she would not fall victim to the games some liked to play.

Rolling to her side to face the approaching footsteps, Caroline gathered her strength and opened her eyes to find a man, more handsome than any she had ever set eyes upon before. Her breath caught the moment their eyes met, the same instant his did as well she noticed. She watched with great intent, studying her newly appointed Charge. Gathering what she could from the look on his chiseled face and within his grey-blue depths since she was still too weak to reach out to him with her magic.

A hard look passed over his face, his eyes shutting down with a hard glint. Caroline felt tears begin to prickle within her eyes as she saw a look of determination that reminded her of another from her past.

Was she cursed? Was she cursed to forever be placed with a Charge like Him? One that held so much darkness and pain within his soul? One that would sooner see her spit out and used than to save her, or himself? One that would gladly see her pay for crimes she had not set out to commit?

The reality of her situation became clearer as the man yanked her to her feet, holding her against his body as she swayed against her slowly regaining strength. His eyes reddening, his teeth elongating to form pointed fangs. She braced herself, knowing what was to come as he bent without a word to pierce her neck.

Klaus howled in pain just before sinking his fangs within her flesh, her blood which had smelled mouthwatering even beneath her dirt covered skin, now smell rancid like deathly poison. He tossed her to the floor, gripping his head as it felt as if an ax was cleaving it in two.

Caroline had just regained her footing, using a nearby table for support, as he recovered and quickly charged at her once again only to fall to the floor as if he had hit an invisible wall bellowing in pain.

"Stop it you blasted witch!"

Caroline huffed, crossing her arms over her chest "I am not a witch! And if you'd kindly cease in your attempts to attack me, it would stop on its own you blustering buffoon."

Klaus balked from the floor at this young slip of a woman's audacity, springing to his feet, "Why you little bitch!" He shouted as he charged at her once again only to be knocked once more flat on his back, trembling in pain.

Caroline stifled her giggles behind her hand, cocking her head to the side to grin down at him as he glared up at her, "Are you finished yet?"

Klaus nodded reluctantly, flashing to a stand as the pain died down while circling her, trying and failing to ascertain just who and what she was and what on earth was happening.

Caroline for her part watched him carefully as she gathered enough strength to reach out with her magics to feel the air and lands around them. She hid her stun and shock well when she discovered she was no longer in the lands that she had roamed as a young sprite and had once called home. The air and magic here was different, not unlike the Realm she had been working to send…She shook such thoughts from her head as her Charge made his way to the other side of the room with a gruff growl. A knowing smirk growing on her lips at his irritation, no doubt he found himself quite perturbed in his quest to decipher who she was.

As the strange man, no, not a man but a vampire, her mind supplied, poured himself a drink. Caroline daintily cleared her throat to draw his attention, "Is it not customary in this land as well to offer a lady a drink as well?"

His misused and dusty gentlemanly ways kicked in, making Elijah proud no doubt, Klaus thought rolling his eyes as he poured and offered her a drink. His keen intellect picking up on her odd use of the words, in this land as well.

She nodded her thanks as he handed her the glass, Klaus watched her intently as he spoke with a deceptively soft grin, "Please excuse my rude manners Sweetheart. It is not also customary for introductions to be had as well…"

"Yes," She replied after sighing in delight at the sharp and spicy burn of the bourbon, "Introductions would have been had by now, had you not been hellbent on attacking me."

The playful teasing smirk upon her lips nearly brought an untimely, and frankly unwanted, bashful huff from him. Nearly, but not quite. "My apologies Madame. Your presence merely caught me off guard." He watched her carefully as he announced with flare, "Niklaus Mikaelson, at your service. But please, call me Klaus." His brows furrowed as he found not a single shred of recognition on her face.

"Caroline." She offered with a soft smile and a nod of her head before sipping the delicious drink once more.

"Caroline…" He let his voice drag in question, his dimples shining through as he leaned closer to her letting her name purr off his tongue, flirting with her as if he had not tried to kill her only moments before, "And what might your full name be, Caroline?"

"Oh." She blushed prettily in embarrassment beneath her dirt covered cheeks, "One such as myself does not have any other name but the one I was given."

"Alright." Klaus pressed his lips at her odd answer before grinning charmingly, "So, just what pray tell are you?"

"I am not a what, I am a who." Her blue eyes blazed with an icy flame, sparking an odd excitement within his stomach, "And as for just who I am…" She nibbled her lower lip, trying to decide just what to say as well as to cover her embarrassment over his unintentional blunder. It wasn't the first time she had been asked such a thing, and even though she hated when the question was asked, it wasn't his fault. But it was time to test the waters with her new Charge. To see just how far this boyishly charming front could last, "Well it is quite a long story and I'd much prefer to have it after I've been fed and perhaps washed up a bit."

Klaus lessened his eyes at her, his voice hardening from the soft manner he had been speaking, "You shall be fed and cleaned once you tell me who you are and what you are doing here."

"You called me here." Caroline replied offhandedly with a quirk of her lips at how quickly his façade faded.

"What?" Klaus bulked, "I did no such thing."

"Yes, you did." Caroline held up a single finger, stopping him from speaking as she gulped down the last of her drink. Setting the glass to the nearby table, she pointed at him, "You preformed the ritual, you freed me from my pris…" Clearing her throat, she smoothed over her misstep, "You called me to your side to assist you with something." She studied him closely, reaching out to feel his most sought-after desires with her magic, "Something you need. Almost desperately I think." She mused aloud as she felt his emotional turmoil over this yet unspoken need of his, yet finding parts of his very being blocked from her. She found this new development quite odd since that had never happened to her with any of her other Charges before. It was almost as if the other parts of him were not only blocked from her, but from him as well. "Strange." She muttered, unable to ascertain just why this was.

"If you are here to help me then why attack me with your magic?" Klaus deflected with an accusatory tone, feeling strangely venerable at her uncanny ability to see through him. It felt as if she was peering into the very depths of his soul.

"Okay point one," Caroline narrowed her eyes, counting on her fingers, "you were coming to attack me. And point two, if you had not have done that; you never would have been hurt."

Klaus scoffed, "I was hardly hurt."

"Oh please!" Caroline tossed her head back with a laugh before looking back at him while snickering, "You men are all the same no matter the time or place. All ego. I saw you rolling around on the floor with my own eyes Klaus. Heard your cries of pain with my very own ears." She placed a hand on her jutted hip while pointing at her ear with the other.

Klaus tampered down the unusual reaction he felt within his chest at the sound of his name upon her lips. As he opened his mouth to offer a rebuttal, finding that he quite enjoyed their banter, a brisk knock came at the door, interrupting them as it cracked open to reveal one of the vampires, "Sir, I am here to collect the body…" The vampire's eyes widened when he found his Master sharing a drink, and not of the variety he assumed that would be had, with the decidedly not dead girl.

"Never mind that." Klaus waved his nameless minion off, "See that a room is readied for my guest in the East wing and a meal prepared for after she has had her bath."

The confused vampire left the room, closing the door behind him and flashing off to do his Master's bidding. He knew all too well the fate that would befall him should he not follow through or make an offhanded comment about Klaus's ever-changing moods.

Caroline scoffed crossing her arms while giving him a scolding glare, "You could have at least said please. Or even thank you."

"Why on Earth would I do that?" Klaus bulked at her, staring at her with wide eyes as if she had sprouted two heads.

"Um, because it's the nice thing to do? You have heard of the term, correct?" Her waving hand fell to her side with a sigh, "By the look upon your face I would take a wild guess to say that nice isn't in your vocabulary, is it?" At his unamused glare Caroline sighed heavily, muttering under her breath, "I thought not. Looks like I have my work cut out for me then."

"What work?" Klaus asked, narrowing his eyes at her pressed lips as he realized she had evaded most of his questions while getting him to give her exactly what she had requested, "Don't think for a moment that you have pulled one over on me Caroline. You will not get away with avoiding my questions."

"I promise to answer all your questions later. For now, I'm hungry and filthy and am in no mood to answering the million questions you will undoubtedly have after I tell you the answer to your first."

"The room is ready Sir. The meal should be finished promptly after the lady is washed and dressed."

Caroline smiled longingly at the promise of comfort that the voice that sounded through the door brought with it, "Now if you will excuse me."

Klaus latched onto her arm as she made to pass him, noticing that nothing happened to him as he held her back. Interesting. His mind quickly caught onto why that was. Since he had no intentions to harm her, only hold her here for a moment, it seemed as though whatever parlor tricks she held didn't flare up.

Caroline huffed, turning to glare at him as he demanded, "You will answer one question before leaving this room. And know that I only grant you this small reprieve because I will not have you fainting due to malnourishment or the smell of your own filthy skin during our pending conversation. I will have all my answers before this night is through. And if you even think of escaping…"

Caroline rolled her eyes at the loaded threat his silence implied, "I wouldn't dream of it. But would I warn you, my answer may shock you and will only bring on more questions." She narrowed her eyes at him, cutting off whatever he was about to say, "You have your demands and I have mine. I will answer one question now, but no more. Not until I've had a proper bath and we are seated for our meal. Deal?'

"Aye." Klaus nodded, releasing her from his hold as he asked, "How did you stop my attacks if you are not a witch?"

"I did not stop you from attacking me, you did. Tut-tut-tut," She waved a finger in his face as if scolding a child with a teasing smile, "The deal has already been struck. But as I am a benevolent being," She giggled at overly dramatic eyeroll, "I shall leave you with this dear Klaus so that you may rest your head easily and, so I may also enjoy my small reprieve in peace. You and I have somewhat of an accord here. For you see, I cannot harm you anymore than you can harm me. I am here to help you gain your most sought after desire."

Klaus watched her walk to the door, confusion coursing through his entire being at her answer, as well as the million more questions she promised her answer would bring. Her hand paused on the doorknob as he breathed, "Why?"

Her bright and beaming smile lit up her dirty face as she glanced at him from over her shoulder, "Because my dear Klaus, I am your Fairy Godmother."

Klaus sank to a nearby chair, where he sat with her words ringing loudly in his ears long after she left the room, unsure whether to laugh hysterically or yank her out of the shower upstairs and demand the truth.

The truth.

The truth, as hard to believe as it was, had shone clearly in her eyes and voice. The picture of it running through his mind over and over again causing him to jump up from the chair and pour over the texts left unwillingly behind by the dead witches.

He was ashamed to admit that the majority of the wordings were lost to him, written in a language he had never came across before meeting Deirdre. But with what little she had taught him during his manipulative courtship of her and paired with the fact that all his years upon this Earth had helps him become quite the scholar, it allowed him to understand bits and pieces of the text and it's meaning.

Bound by blood. Called. Interwind. Crossing Realms. There were other's as well, ones that held a foreboding quality to them, ones that told a story much like the one the naive witch had spilled to him of a powerful object locked away within the dirt and stones, never to see the light of day. To be bound to the darkness for all time. Too powerful to be let free. Set to be punished within a prison unless a precise spell was cast.

The way the witch had told it, he had assumed the object locked away to be a powerful tool to aid in his quest to break his curse, not a young slip of a woman claiming to be his Fairy Godmother of all things. Klaus recalled that Deirdre had spoken of a terrible and dreadful curse placed upon this forbidden object. That it was said to be filled with such darkness that it had to be locked away forever.

Klaus glanced to the ceiling, his mind wondering how someone as bright, for even he could see it beneath her dirt and grime, and full of life could be considered too dark to be allowed to roam free.

What had she done to give others cause to lock her away? Just how long had she been there? And what was this curse that was supposedly placed upon her lovely head?

Klaus pondered such things and the many more questions that arose as he went to check on the preparations of their meal. Each time he recalled her words, claiming to be his Fairy Godmother, he found himself caught between the absurdity of it all, feeling as if he was trapped within a strange dream and the heavy yet welcomed weight that settled over him when she had declared it.

Whatever the answers would be, there was something powerful about her.

Caroline.

Klaus grinned wickedly as he leaned against the wall, overseeing the setting of the dining table. With her at his side he would make an even greater force to be reckoned with indeed.

He heard the shower turn off upstairs, smiling as he felt the odd sense of rightness and excitement that had begun to blossom within him as he began to accept her appearance in his life.

With Caroline at his side he would break his curse before the year's end. He could feel it deep within his bones, nearly taste it on his tongue.

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I hope you all enjoyed this odd little story. My lovely giftee had put this idea in my head mainly as a joke but of course I ran with it! There is more yes! As with most things, I planned to have more finished by the upload date for this gift exchange, but the Flu decided to make its way through my house. Starting Christmas Eve with my daughter, poor thing. Then as soon as I thought I was out of the woods…BAM! Down I went too. I just came out of the worst of it yesterday. I hate that I lost just over a week but I am slowly on the mend and getting back to work on my stories. Stay tuned for more updates here and in my other stories soon!


	39. The Lost Prince and The Eternal Queen

Klaroline Valentine's Gift Exchange 2018- _written for laufire_ \- **The Lost Prince and The Eternal Queen**

 **Summary-** _Klaus was met with nothing but betrayal everywhere he turned. Lost and alone, he sets out on a mission to track down the right type of wolves to turn into hybrids. What he didn't expect to find was a stunning creature by the name of Caroline Forbes, who was a wolf within the only pack that was not hiding from him. Together they find things that they both have been missing, as well as things neither one ever expected to discover._

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Ice clinked against the glass as Klaus absentmindedly swirled the tumbler in his hand, before he drained the last of the whiskey and signaled the bartender for another. The small off the beaten path bar was surprisingly well-kept, yet oddly empty for five o'clock on a Friday night. Though, at the present moment, Klaus didn't mind the quiet nor did he pay any attention to the curious yet watchful eye of the barkeep as his mind drifted over the events that led him here.

Things had been going perfectly in his opinion. His curse had been broken, his family undaggered, his wretched Father had been permanently put down and his meddling Mother was sent back to the Other Side where she belonged. He had begun building his hybrid army and had a living doppelganger ready, even if unwillingly so, to donate blood at his disposal to turn as many as he chose.

That was, until everything went decidedly wrong.

His brothers abandoned him to lead their own pitiful lives without him, all claiming that his quest for power would be his downfall and they no longer wanted any part of it. The blasted Salvatore brothers got in his way one too many times, leading to his near demise at the hands of a hunter. Rebekah had saved him from being locked in a coffin and sent to the ocean floor only to have him wish she had left him there to rot. During the time he had been taken and desiccated she had wrongly assumed him dead, causing her to take out her vengeance on the doppelganger, which had led to the girl being turned into yet another useless vampire.

He had left Rebekah sniveling and crying on the floor of his once beloved mansion in Mystic Falls, renouncing her as his sister and vowing that if he ever laid eyes upon her again he would dagger and leave her coffin to rot in a forgotten cave for good.

He had taken what little solace he could with the last of the doppelganger's blood, storing the blood bags away safely in a cooler in the trunk of his car before peeling out of town and drove off to where he had been housing his hybrids, completely ready to call them his new family.

Only they did not wish to claim him as family any more than his siblings had. It had turned out he was sorely mistaken of their loyalty and the strength of the sire bond. He had been ambushed upon arrival, quickly discovering that they had broken their sire bond all under the teachings of his first hybrid the Lockwood brat. In a fit of rage and pain, he had slaughtered them all. All but Tyler. He made the wretched mutt watch as he tore them all apart piece by piece then set fire to the house he had procured for them all, so that the boy could live with the guilt of what his actions and treachery had wrought.

Finished with Mystic Falls and all that it contained, he set out on a mission to find as many werewolf Packs as he could, this time being more selective in who he chose to turn. Only he couldn't find any. Not one shred of a werewolf hair was left behind. Someone had warned them to go into hiding, someone was messing with his plans and he had a deep seeded feeling within his gut that the boy he let live was behind it all.

At times Klaus wondered if locking his wolf away wasn't the only curse placed upon his head. For the first time in centuries, he felt whole within himself and yet…an empty void still begged to be filled. His family was in tatters, _Always and Forever_ it seemed had an expiration date. His hybrids had turned against him, along with any he had dared to name a friend. Thoughts of Marcel, long ago left in New Orleans after his attempted uprising against him and Stefan, the one he truly felt as a brother in arms and close friend betrayed him time and time again leaving behind nothing but the vicious sting of each one to rot within his heart.

It often felt as though he would forever be alone.

Klaus was pulled from his morose thoughts as the door to the establishment was thrown open with a large, laughing group pouring through the threshold. The barkeep grinned widely, quickly refreshing Klaus's drink before rushing off to the other side of the bar to begin taking orders.

The door closed behind the last member of the group, sending a soft breeze carrying a scent along with it to Klaus's senses.

 _Finally._ Klaus thought as he smirked into his drink. He had finally found just the Pack he had been looking for. It would seem the witch he had consulted a few weeks ago, though her cryptic message was long brushed aside and forgotten, had not led him astray in his search.

XXX

The party had been in full swing for over an hour when a beautiful smiling blonde skipped up to the bar next to him ordering a tray full of shots. Though she looked as happy and excited as any other of the party goers, Klaus could read the underlying tension set within her shoulders. Placing a friendly grin upon his face, he turned towards her, "That's quite the shindig going on over there, _little wolf_."

The blonde frozen before turning only her head towards him with a scathing glare, "Yes it is, though no one besides my Grandma uses words like that anymore."

"Ah, a woman after my own heart then. I do fancy myself an _old_ soul." Klaus smirked at his own joke, no doubt lost upon the young wolf.

The girl surprised him as she scoffed, "I'd say _ancient_ would be more appropriate, wouldn't you, Klaus?"

"Well, well, well. You've heard of me. Fantastic. While I do enjoy making new introductions and shall we say, _teaching_ others of just who and what I am, I also find it quite relaxing when I can just cut to the point." Even with the unspoken threat hanging in the air between them, Klaus was stunned to find this slip of a girl hardly seemed bothered by it. Instead she turned towards him, hip jutted with her arms folded tightly across her chest, an unimpressed and slightly daring glare blazing at him from her blue eyes. He didn't know whether to be put out or impressed by her tenacity. He opted for a more diplomatic approach, waving his hand as he demanded regally, "I require a meeting with your Alpha, see that it is done. Now."

What he had expected from the young wolf he did not know but her doubling over in laughter as she mocked him was not it.

Wiping a stray tear from her eye and tucking a lock of her hair behind her ear she attempted to calm herself, "That's not how things work around here. You aren't our Lord and Master and you certainly aren't our King." Sobering, she pressed her lips together, "Tonight is not about business. Try back tomorrow." With that she turned away in dismissal.

Angered at her blatant disregard to just who he was, Klaus stood behind her, hissing in her ear, "Now sweetheart, I don't think you understand just how easily I could rip this party to shreds before you even tuck that shining hair of yours behind your ear once more."

She quickly spun on her heels, smiling up at him with her large blue eyes, "You think its shiny? That's the best thing I've heard all night! See, I tried this new conditioner and I was a little skeptical on whether it worked as well as it claimed. I'm so glad to hear it wasn't just wishful thinking on my part."

Klaus stared at her with his mouth hung open as if she had grown two heads, he couldn't tell if this smiling little wolf was being altogether serious with him or just playing with him.

"Let me assure you I may ramble, but I never say anything I don't mean." She spoke as if she could read his very thoughts before she sighed and eyed him up and down, thinking him over, "You aren't going to let any of this wait until tomorrow, are you? No, I can tell just by looking at you, you're not one to let sleeping dogs lie." Her head tilted adorably as she giggled, "Or should I say, drinking dogs party. Fine! Fine! Just give me a few minutes."

Klaus tried to catch up with all that had just happened as she spun around, taking the waiting tray of shots and made to walk away. Snapping out of his stupor Klaus called after her, "What's your name Love?"

Spinning on the ball of her foot, not spilling a drop of the shots, she beamed, "Caroline." Before weaving her way through the crowd, her hips rolling with a naturally seductive sway that left Klaus smirking as he leaned against the bar, taking his glass in his hand and toasting her back.

Perhaps this venture could prove to be even more enjoyable than he first imagined, especially with such a fetching sparing partner close at hand.

Caroline moved with grace and purpose through the crowd, dropping off the tray of shots before sauntering over to a large burly man who stood off to the side of the merry makers. Klaus watched as they whispered to each other, too softly for even his ears to hear, before she nodded towards him with a cat that ate the canary smirk. The large man's dark eyes narrowed at him before looking back to the petite blonde, the twosome did not speak again but both nodded their heads and the large man departed towards the hall at the back of the bar.

Looking back to Caroline, Klaus lifted a brow in question to which she simply replied with a grin and a tilt of her head as a way to tell him to follow after the man.

Assuming the Alpha would wish to speak with him alone, Klaus was surprised to find Caroline slowly following him into the back office of the bar. Shrugging it off, is wasn't unheard of for an Alpha to have a high-ranking member of their Pack involved in meetings of such standards. Klaus used the knowledge he had picked up when dealing with the various nobility of days past hoping it would show respect and give the Alpha a sense of security. Having little knowledge of the inner workings of werewolf Packs made Klaus feel at a distinct disadvantage.

Caroline was closing the door behind her as Klaus strode towards the larger man with his hand extended, "I appreciate you taking the time away from the festivities to have this impromptu meeting."

Klaus frowned as the man simply grunted and brushed passed him to stand in front of the door.

Caroline giggled, drawing his attention and took his hand that was just beginning to fall, giving him a firm yet gentle shake, "I would've rather waited until tomorrow to have this meeting over lunch, but I do appreciate you holding off on the violence for the evening." Pressing her lips together with a grin in an effort to hold back her laughter at the dumbfounded look that graced Klaus's face, she cleared her throat, "Caroline Forbes, Alpha of the Crescent Pack." Dropping his hand, she waved towards the other man, "That's Billy, he likes to think of himself as my bodyguard at times. Please, lets sit and have ourselves a chat, shall we?"

Klaus followed her towards the desk where she took up the chair behind it as if she owned the place, taking a seat in front of her he huffed lightheartedly, "Cheeky minx, aren't you?"

"Given the right circumstances, yes." She fired lightly back, "When the Original Hybrid walks into your turf and he doesn't know who the Alpha is, one can't pass up the opportunity to have a little fun." She placed a hand over her heart with a small grin, "But I promise the games are finished and since I'd really like to get back to the celebration so how about we cut to the chase of why you're here, skim over the details and have a more in depth talk tomorrow?"

"You've been quite accommodating so far, I suppose I can agree to that."

"Right, so I suppose you are here about your quest to make hybrids then?"

"You would assume correctly." Klaus replied with narrowed eyes.

"And judging by the fact that you aren't just turning us all willy-nilly," She filled her hand back and forth, "it would seem you have a different game plan in motion."

"After my last attempts," He smiled at her antics, answering her honestly, "I have come to find that a more diplomatic approach is needed."

"Makes sense. I'm sure you plan to be a little more selective in who you chose to turn, seeing that your blood supply from the doppelganger has been permanently cut off."

His face went hard as the easy smile fell from his lips, "You seem to be very informed."

"I wouldn't be fit to be Alpha if I wasn't." Finding Klaus's acceptance of her answer Caroline leaned back in her seat, spinning it from side to side as she mulled things over, "What to do, what to do. I assume that if I order you away you won't listen and just cause all kinds of problems for me and my Pack." His Cheshire cat grin and simple shrugging of his shoulders confirmed that line of thought until a similar grin lit up her face as she stopped spinning and sat up leaning forward with her hands folded in front of her on the desk, "So how about we make an agreement?"

"What sort of agreement?" Klaus asked her skeptically.

"I will allow you to stay, see who you _might_ like to turn and _if_ they are in agreement, we can then sit and talk."

Never trusting a gift horse, Klaus crossed his arms over his chest, "And just what is it you would want in return?"

Caroline grinned, happy with how this was all working out, even more so that Bonnie had foretold of Klaus's coming so she could come up with a solid plan, "You will stay with us, live amongst the Pack as a, sort of, honorary member for the remainder of the summer."

Klaus began laughing at the absurd request. Money, protection, hell even being turned herself had crossed his mind, but this? Her finely sculpted eyebrow rose, showcasing the seriousness of her request and sobering him, "You're not joking. Why on Earth would I wish to do that?"

"It's my understanding that you never really had a chance to be a part of a Pack. I think if you understood more about how we work and who _we_ are, it might help you gain whatever it is that you have been looking for."

His face turned to stone, "What makes you think I'm looking for anything sweetheart?"

"You are out here in my territory after searching high and low for any other Packs. Trust me when I say we could have hidden as well but I'm giving you a chance here Klaus. Don't be stupid, take it."

Her soothing yet forceful demand left him reeling. She was right, and he very well knew it, she could have taken her entire Pack and hidden them all away much like all the others had across the States. But for some reason they had not. Her only request, him staying to live and learn among the Pack was an oddity inside itself. Was it some sort of ploy to do away with him? Play on his heartstrings, that she assumed he had, to stop him from turning them? "I still fail to see what the purpose would be of me living among your Pack."

Caroline smiled as if she was speaking to a wayward child, her voice soft and proud as she began to explain, "We support one another, each individual member's strengths and accomplishments are the collective group's as well. We embrace our individual weaknesses and build off one another, lifting each other up, where others would fall on their own. Being a part of a Pack is the true essence of family."

Skeptical after his thousand years of watching his own family fall apart, Klaus scoffed, "Sounds like a pipe dream to me. How do you handle discord within the ranks, by holding hands and talking about your feelings while skipping merrily through the flowers?"

"By treating each issue fairly and justly." Caroline replied firmly, "No two crimes against Pack members are alike, no argument the same, therefore we treat everything as a case by case basis. Sometimes accords can be reached, others punishment must be doled out to fit the crime. But we go to great lengths to see that our members will fit into our little society so that we may avoid such cases. There are very few rules to be followed and they are quite simple and straight forward. No harming another member, no stealing, no harming the locals or the neighboring Coven and no doing anything that would reflect poorly against the Pack."

"The no harming the locals might be a tough one for me." Klaus added cockily, "Part vampire remember? I do need to eat to survive."

"Then I guess it's a good thing we have a local hospital nearby with all the latest medical advances, including a small blood bank."

"Surely you do not expect me to feed off blood bags for the entirety of the summer! You of all creatures should understand the power of death and blood. For Christ sakes werewolves need to kill in order to turn."

"How we turn or even kill for that matter is not up for discussion at this point. I suggest you rethink your approach with me, this is an amazing gift I am giving you." The burly man by the door growled as Caroline's temper rose, "We knew you were coming, and trust me when I say if we did not want to be found you wouldn't be sitting her with me. It was put to a vote and it took a long time to conduct your trial. I will not have you causing any chaos and ruining all the hard work I did to even allow you to be here!"

Her spirit enthralled him, though he was stuck on one thing, "My trial?"

"Yes. Your trail." She spat.

"Just what was I placed on trial for?"

"For your crimes against your own kind." Her voice cracked as she began yelling, her eyes flashing with a slight tint of gold, "We do not take such things lightly, whether within our own Pack or not. Kidnapping, torturing and the slaughter of your own kind is strictly forbidden and punishable by death at the hands of the families you caused pain and suffering to."

"I will not have my actions judged by a group of backwoods wolves who have no idea of what I've done and why!" Klaus sneered, his eyes flaring pure gold with his temper.

"Can you kindly calm down before my bodyguard gets antsy, attacks you and then gets killed?" Caroline asked, calming her own anger as Billy stopped snarling and huffed. "Please, he's a hybrid, not just any hybrid but the Original Hybrid, you'd be dead before either of us could blink." A quick glance back to Klaus had her rolling her eyes, "And you can wipe that egotistical smirk off your face. I'm just stating a fact, I'm not here to give you some unneeded and definitely poor taste in an ego boost."

"How is complimenting me of my prowess in poor taste?" Klaus smirked.

Caroline slammed her hand against the desk, the strength behind her blow causing a crack to web out along the wood in tiny fractures beneath her hand as she lost her temper, "Because it would be against your own kind you, epic moron! That type of power should only be directed at your enemies and only when warranted. Not because you are having some childish temper tantrum!"

Klaus knew he should rail at her for daring to speak to him in such a manner, he should kill her in front of her entire Pack outside just to show them who they were dealing with and what happens should any of them cross him. But that was but a whisper of habit barely audible in the back corner of his mind. At the forefront he was utterly transfixed by this vivacious, bold and beautiful creature before him. This gorgeous woman who had no care for who or what he was but stood up to him and called him out in all of her bright and righteous anger. So transfixed and in awe of her he sat stunned until she waved a pointed finger in his face.

" _That_ right there is why you were on trial." Caroline sighed, dropping her hand softly, belaying her true strength as she sat back in her chair, "Though many were opposed to the idea of allowing you entrance into our Pack, it was our final conclusion that you had very little understanding of your own people and the ways in which we live. In a way, no matter your vast years upon this Earth, you are little more than a small pup who needs guidance, learning and understanding."

Klaus knew she did not mean any offence to what she had said, though it rubbed him raw, he could not deny her words. He had very little experience when it came to the ways of the Packs. Never knowing what he truly was until after his Mother has cursed him and he made his first kill as a vampire, left little time for him to learn where he had come from. Klaus glanced over Caroline, studying her face as he reached a decision. He had made many wrong calls when it came to trusting people but something about this girl pulled at his heart and mind. She was loyal, kind and understanding. And if what he had gathered from her so far was correct, she had willingly gone to battle and stood up for him to her own Pack. Here she was handing him what he had always secretly dreamed of, a chance to know what life would have been like if things had turned out differently.

"Alright."

"Alright?" Caroline sat up in her chair, pushing down her excitement in case she understood him wrong.

"I will stay and abide by the Pack Laws."

"Wonderful!" Caroline's exuberance as she stood clapping, pulling him out of his chair and into a quick fierce hug had him laughing, "Now first things first, we need to go out there and introduce you. Then, to show you mean no harm, you need to congratulate Missy and buy a round for the bar."

Klaus glanced towards Billy as Caroline began skipping to the door and down the hall, "Just what am I congratulating her on? It would seem your fearless leader forgot to inform me."

Billy simply grunted as Caroline poked her head back in the office, "Whoops! Sorry, I tend to get a little over excited sometimes. Missy passed her NCLEX and was offered a full time position at the local hospital."

Klaus watched Billy head down the hall to take his post back up off to the side of all the partiers, "He doesn't talk much does he?" He leaned in to whisper in Caroline's ear.

"You'll get used to it." Caroline giggled as she put in the order of Klaus to buy a round ahead of the announcement, so it would be ready and waiting.

Her easy acceptance of him and assumptions that the others would be just as open left him feeling a strange excitement that he had rarely ever felt. Finding out that Caroline was correct with how he was received that evening left him feeling freer than even breaking his curse had a year ago.

XXX

Klaus had been shocked and pleasantly surprised at the community the Crescent Pack had made for themselves. In all his travels while searching out werewolf Packs he had come across many different ways of life, from the small campgrounds that changed locations after each full moon to the apartment complexes that housed most of the members. But here was something extraordinary. Tucked just outside of a small town in the Appalachian Mountains was a sprawling and thriving werewolf town all its own.

He had learned during his time here that the Pack's land sat on well over three hundred acres. Some of the land included an entrance into a vast forest and mountain terrane, a large pond sat off to the back of the whole property, cut off from the living quarters by farm fields and a small but fruitful apple orchard.

A large old farm house stood tall and proud at the front of the property. Klaus had discovered that Caroline's elderly Grandmother lived there with many of the Pack elders, as well as the fresh from college members who had yet to build or secure a cabin of their own. Smaller cabins dotted the property in various places, some closer together housing different members of the same family while others were spread out amongst the fields and trees. Caroline's modest cabin sat close to the center of the property with only one other cabin nearby, the one he had been placed in.

Dirt lanes connected it all and every inch of the property was always teaming with life. Whether it was the workers in the fields or the orchard, people cleaning out the barns and stalls and tending to the animals, teenagers riding four wheelers while they took breaks from chores or even the younger children playing on the small playground.

Meal time was another event all in itself. While most of the families ate their breakfast within their own dwellings and lunch was served whenever and wherever you were working, the evening meal was had together by all in the front yard of the large main house. Even the weather didn't stop them, huge canopy tents would be erected, and the tables would be placed beneath.

It was after one of these nightly meals that saw Caroline and Klaus walking side by side through the orchard on the way back to their cabins.

"So," Caroline broke their comfortable silence, "you've been with us for almost three weeks now."

"Counting the days, are we?" Klaus grinned, wiggling his brows.

"Oh my God!" Caroline laughed, "In your dreams maybe."

"There's no maybe about it, only surety."

"Cocky much?" She snipped lightheartedly, quickly lifting her hand to point at him, "Don't. Just, don't. I don't even want to know."

Klaus raised his hands, feigning naivety, "I have no idea what you are talking about Caroline."

"Uh huh, sure you don't. Anyways, as I was saying, you've been with us for going on three weeks now and with the full moon only a few days away some of the Pack have been wondering if you were going to turn with us." Caroline watched as his face closed off and his body tensed, a sign she was quickly learning meant that either he didn't wish to discuss what she was asking him about or he had very little knowledge on the subject and didn't want to look the fool. Which was ridiculous to her, who cared if he didn't know something! It wasn't like he had ever had the opportunity to learn about his wolf and their community.

Klaus's body tensed and coiled beside her, another sign she had picked up on. He was about to use his vampire abilities to flash away from her. Acting quickly, she leapt forward, latching onto his arm, trusting that he would stop as to not hurt her.

"Oh no you don't!"

"Caroline, let go." Klaus snarled.

"No way! The moment I do you'll just flash off and disappear on me."

"How very perceptive of you sweetheart." He snarled without looking at her.

"Hey now, none of that growly I'm-so-deep-and-dark tone with me. We've came too far for any of that." Caroline joked in attempts to call him down from whatever had his tail in a bunch.

"Three weeks is hardly long enough to gain a deep understanding and friendship sweetheart."

"You're the one who said he dreams of me counting the days just a minute ago. Was that the truth or was that all just a line?" Her perfectly sculpted brow arched as if to dare him to deny her. When he said nothing but relaxed under her grip she grinned, "Yup, that's what I thought. Besides, I know enough about you to know that you only call me sweetheart when you're irritated with me."

"You're quite a vexing person, you know that?" Klaus sighed, his irritation slowly leaving him, "Always pushing until she gets her way."

"See? We know all kinds of things about each other." She tilted her head to the side with a large beaming smile as she passed him to seat herself on a fallen log, tapping the space next to her with a pointed look.

Klaus huffed, shaking his head with a soft laugh as he began walking over to sit beside her. "How you can manage to smile so thoughtfully and friendly while still throwing a look with your eyes that holds enough power to cause even myself to fall in line with your wishes I might never fully comprehend."

Caroline sighed dramatically with a hand placed over her chest, "It's a gift only few possess." Catching his soft laughter, she kept her triumphant glee to herself over having the Original Hybrid relax and do as she said. Instead she clapped her hands and turned to face him fully, "So, you were going to tell me what had you ready to flash off the moment I mentioned the full moon."

"I was, was I?"

"Uh huh." Her head bobbed, "Is it that you've never really turned with others around before? Or maybe you haven't quite got the hang of it since you've only recently broken your curse?"

Embarrassed, Klaus scratched at the back of his neck choosing the watch the wind as it played with the corn stalks in the distance than to see the look on her face as he explained, "A bit of both if I am being honest. With my first turning, I had no idea what was happening to me and remember very little of it until I woke up tied to a tree with my Mother placing the curse upon me. After I broke the curse, I was filled with excitement and power but later I recalled the pain of turning and never tried again."

"Hmm," Caroline hummed thoughtfully, "I imagine with your experiences anyone would be put off by the thoughts of turning again. Especially if they had the abilities to choose when or if to turn at all."

"That's the only reason most of the hybrids were happy about being turned and sired by me. I took the pain of turning away and gave them the choice not to at all."

Caroline wondered just how much she should tell him about her theory, "I'm curious…"

"About what Love?" Klaus asked turning to face her.

Caroline bit her lip to hold back her smile, seems he wasn't angry with her any longer, "Do you think the cravings and uncontrollable desire and need for blood would have been easier if you had known what was happening to you when your Mother turned you into a vampire?"

Klaus sat stunned for a moment before answering her honestly, "I've never really thought about it. I suppose that in theory could have been the case, but I have never seen a person willingly turn before so I couldn't rightly say. Why do you ask?" Klaus felt his heart pound, could it be possible that Caroline was thinking of turning herself? Fast flashes of what his life could be like if she was there to spend the entirety of it along side him came and went as her voice broke the odd train of thought.

"It's just…" Caroline sighed, knowing she would have to explain fully, "This Pack, we don't feel the pain as others do."

"What do you mean?" Klaus asked in perplexation.

"First off, we are taught at an early age that turning is a gift. Being the wolf and running on four legs is as much a part of us as walking around on two. We are prepared for when our time comes, in many ways that other Packs are not or for some reason choose not to be. My theory is that they have just gotten away from the old ways." She glanced at Klaus who sat listening intently, "That's not to say we don't feel any pain or discomfort while shifting forms, it's just not overbearing. It's more freeing is the only way I can think to explain it. I think it has to do with the old ways we keep, the fact that we watch the wolves change when we are young, that we know and plan for the day we too will change. It's celebrated."

"I find it hard to believe that you or any of your Pack members would celebrate having to kill another." Klaus caught the way her eyes glanced around rapidly, "What aren't you telling me?"

"Unlike how it happens with most wolves, killing by a fit of rage or by accident, we all take our first and sometimes only kill on purpose as a right of passage and a way to keep our area safe." Caroline rushed on before he could ask, "We have an agreement with the local law enforcement and council members, when it is time for another member to turn we take out the criminals that seem to either keep getting away with it or will never be reformed. The rapists, the killers, the child molesters."

"So you believe that since the old ways of knowing when you will turn, being prepared and knowing full well that the person you have to kill in order to turn is an irredeemable enemy of all, gives your Pack the power, for lack of a better word, over their own shifting?"

"To put it shortly, yup." Caroline watched as his mind being racing over all sorts of thoughts and avenues. Whether he picked up on what this would mean for him making hybrids she wasn't sure, and she wasn't ready to tell him. First, she felt he needed to figure out how to shift himself. "Alright, let's get heading back."

As they reach their neighboring cabins, Caroline was surprised to find Bonnie there, not noticing that she was heading towards Klaus's porch and not her own. But before she could greet her friend, a small cloud of dust drew the groups attention towards the Jeep bouncing down the lane. Huffing at who was heading their way Caroline missed Klaus narrowing his eyes at the young witch as he caught on to the fact that she had not come to see Caroline but himself. Though he couldn't rightly understand why, their initial meeting didn't go over as well as Caroline had hoped. The Bennett line did always hold great animosity towards his family over what his Mother had created all those centuries ago.

Klaus's attention was diverted to Caroline and the stiff set to her shoulders as a brunette with overly pouty lips bounced out of the Jeep and flounced towards their small group.

"Caroline!"

"Hayley." Caroline greeted with distaste.

"Is that any way to greet your very own cousin who just happens to be carrying the next female Alpha of the Pack?" Hayley pouted, rubbing her hands over her large stomach.

" _Potential._ The jury is still out on whether your child will become the Alpha or not." Caroline spat through her teeth.

"Well it's not like you're doing anything about furthering our family's line." Her large brown eyes scanned over Klaus making him feel disgusted in the way she all but simpered before him. "Unless you are and haven't told anyone yet. Are you going to introduce me to your ah…friend here?"

"I don't know Hayley, are you ever going to figure out who the father of that baby is?" The jab cut just as deep as Caroline had hoped it would, she wouldn't allow herself to feel bad for it either, Hayley had caused her nothing but misery ever since they were children and Hayley found out that Caroline had been chosen to lead their Pack instead of her.

"You're just jealous that I'm pregnant and you're not. That I could be carrying the one person who could knock you off your golden pedestal." Hayley hurled back.

"Keep dreaming Hayley. I can guarantee you that there isn't an ounce of jealous I feel for you. Disgust, maybe. Pity, definitely. Hope that one day you might finally grasp the true meaning of being a leader and what being a part of a Pack means, always." Caroline shook her head with shame. How her cousin could claim to be a wolf yet completely disregard the very Pack she came from was beyond her.

Knowing she wouldn't be able to get to Caroline the way she was going, Hayley changed tactics, turning instead towards Klaus, "You might want to think twice about shacking up with this one." She toss her thumb towards Caroline, "Sure, she might be the Alpha now, she might even be good for a few nights of play, but if you are looking to further your standing within the ranks you should know the rumors going around."

Caroline scoffed, "And just what rumors would those be Hayley? I'm sure anything that you've heard came from the lowest of wolves and can easily be discredited."

"Oh, I don't know about that Carebear," She sneered the hated nickname at her blonde cousin, "they seem pretty solid to me as far as rumors goes."

"Why don't you just spit it out then and go crawl back under which ever man you left tied to your bed. We all know that's the only way you could keep one. They can't get away from you fast enough."

"Oh yeah? Well what about you Miss High and Mighty? How do you keep a man around? Oh yeah, that's right, you can't. Talk would have it that there is a _huge_ reason for it. A reason that would cause any man, especially one dating an Alpha, shame." Hayley grinned as she seen the understand build in Caroline's eyes.

"I'm done. I'm not even going to entertain you." Caroline said proudly, turning to walk away, "Come on Bonnie. Klaus?"

The trio began to walk away, all freezing at Hayley's next words, but none more than Caroline.

"You might want to think twice about being with her Klaus. Rumor is she can't ever bare you a son or a daughter. Unlike the rest of us female wolves, her womb is as dried as the corn husk will be at harvest season."

Caroline proudly kept her head held high and her back turned towards her tormentor, though Klaus and Bonnie didn't miss the slight quivering to her lower lip or the glistening of her blue eyes.

Angered at the reaction this pathetic slip of a woman caused the brave and bright Caroline, Klaus turned, leering with evil intent at the simpering and proud of herself brunette. "What use would children be to me, when I can live forever?" At the confused tilt of her head Klaus dropped his double set of fangs and allowed his eyes to bleed yellow as he grinned widely. Hayley yelped before awkwardly stumbling to her Jeep, not bothering with her seatbelt as she spun the vehicle around and sped down the lane.

Klaus spun on his heels, laughing as his face returned to normal only to watch in perplexing as Caroline took off running towards the tree line. He made to follow after her only to snarl as the young witch placed her hand upon his arm. He opened his mouth to snap at her but stopped when he saw the look of sadness covering her face as she shook her head.

"Don't. She needs a minute alone, trust me." If she weren't Caroline's best friend he would have scoffed and did as he pleased, but something told him the witch was correct in her assumption. "Besides, you and I need to talk."

"Really?" He took a single step back from her, folding his arms over his chest, "And just what pray tell do we need to discuss?"

"One of my ancestors contacted me privately and she has a message for you." Bonnie glared at him, she didn't like him at all, but something told her, besides everything he ancestor did, that she would be dealing with him for a long time to come and would have to find a way to get along with him. For Caroline's sake.

"Oh? Who was it and what was the message little witch?"

"Ayana."

Klaus froze at the single name the young witch uttered before he simply replied, "Start talking."

XXX

The sun had just set by the time Klaus had finished speaking to Bonnie. He was still reeling over all that he had learned and just how deep the hands of Fate seemed to weave into things. He was meant to be here. Here is where he would find all that he had been searching for and more. He began to recall a similar tale being told to him by the witch he had contacted before his journey. But now was not the time for any of that. He thought as he flashed through the forest following Caroline's scent. She had been alone for long enough.

He skidded to a stop when he found her sitting on a large rock overlooking the Pack Lands from high above them. "Caroline?"

Her raspy voice caused him to flinch as she answered, "She's right you know. About me. I've known since I was fourteen. And yet they still chose me to lead." She scoffed, "I don't know why, it's not like I can ever help grow the Pack."

It was Klaus's turn to scoff as he walked over and kneeled down before her, "How have you not helped grow the Pack? Look at all you have done for them. I've spent enough time here already to know who was born into this Pack and who you saved from others. Those who would have been alone in the world and yet you opened your arms and gave them all a home."

"Hayley was right," Caroline continued on as if she didn't hear him, "No man will ever have me once he finds out I cannot give him children and protect our hold on the Alpha line."

Klaus placed his hand beneath her chin lifting it to force her to look him in the eyes, "Any man who cannot see what an asset you would be to him, what a precious jewel you are is not worthy to lick the ground you walk upon. Do you doubt my words at who you are and what you will become? Just look at this moment now Caroline Forbes. Here you sit with the Original Hybrid himself at your feet, the very one you ordered about in that backroom office all those weeks ago and he has gladly followed."

Caroline scoffed lowly, "For his own gains."

"That may be so but," Klaus took a deep breath, knowing he would need to show her just how much power she had, just what she was capable of accomplishing, "Here is something that maybe be for my own gains but then again, maybe not. Maybe it is strictly because of you Caroline."

"Just what are you going on about now Klaus?"

"Teach me to shift."

Her eyes rounded, and she whispered, "What? Are you serious?"

"I'm completely serious." Gulping he stuttered, "I don't want to be afraid of a part of myself any longer and you are the only person I trust to help me."

For a moment Klaus worried that he had made a mistake as he watched her low lips quiver and her eyes well with tears. That is until she flung herself in his arms with a joyous laugh that had him chuckling along.

XXX

Caroline sat with her Grandma on porch of the main house as Klaus and the other Pack members played with all the younglings to tire them out before bed. With the Full Moon that night, it made every wolf from the oldest down to the youngest filled with so much energy. Caroline had been sharing with Klaus all the things that she had been taught prior to her first turning. Watching him kick a ball around with a large group of children, immersing himself in the life as a Pack member brought a warmth inside her unlike she had ever felt with any other stray wolf she had brought into their folds. The conversation they had almost a week ago after Hayley's departure still resonated inside her, filling her with the confidence she had been long missing.

"He sure looks better than when he came here." Her Grandma spoke softly as their rocking chairs creaked.

"Yeah, he does." Caroline replied with a soft smile, "Less angry broody and more relaxed and…"

"At home?" Her Grandma supplied.

Caroline furrowed her brows, finding while that was the case it wasn't just the words she was looking for, "More himself." She said strongly with a nod of her head.

"Hmmm," The older woman hummed thoughtfully, curious on what her Granddaughter would say, "With the way the newly turned wolves hang about him, a few of them will be wanting to leave with him when he goes I'd wager."

Caroline continued watching the games being played on the grounds, humming noncommittally.

"They'd find him a fine leader I'm sure." Her Grandma pressed.

Caroline laughed lightly, "He likes to tease me about that all the time. That he might steal half my Pack from me."

"And what will you do?" The older woman got to what she really wanted to know.

"What do you mean?" Caroline looked at her Grandma in confusion.

She grunted, finally asking in exasperation, "Will you let them leave or invoke your rights as Alpha, child?"

Caroline shrugged, stating with a wisdom beyond her short Twenty-Four years, "If it is their will to be turned and leave with him, then I will revoke my hold over them and allow them to leave with him should they chose to do so."

"Really?" Her Grandma replied, not truly surprised with her Granddaughter's decision, "I'd imagine there are a few, not many mind you only a few, that would love to see the battle of power between the two of you if you did not and he challenged you for the rights of the members."

Caroline rolled her eyes, "I'm sure they would but that's not what they will get."

"Why? Oh don't you go giving me that look, you know very well some might ask such things of you and demand to know the answers. I only ask so that you are prepared for such happenings."

Caroline calmed her sassy glare, knowing her Grandma was only trying to help, "Because it's not need or necessary. First, it's every wolf's right to choose where they want to be and second, it's his birth right!" She pointed towards Klaus before turning to whisper to her Grandma, "Can't you feel it Grandma? The Alpha blood that rolls through his veins? The power and strength that comes with his wolf's bloodline?"

"My bones may be old child, too old to feel the dirt beneath my paws again, but I'm not too old that I cannot feel the old line that flows through that man."

Caroline saw out of the corner of her eye that even though he acted as though he was paying them no attention, Klaus was discreetly hanging on their every word. Excitement that she could help him discover which line he had come from filled her, "What do you know of his line?"

The older woman leaned her head back against her chair, closing her eyes as she rocked, "Hmm, it might take some digging, my mind isn't what it used to be but it was stuff of legends before it died out."

"Could you try...please." Caroline pleaded placing her hand on her Grandma's arm.

The older woman placed her hand, patting her Granddaughter's, without opening her eyes, "I think the best place for you to start would be in the old stories and legends you were told as a young girl. _The Lost Prince_."

" _The Lost Prince_?" Caroline asked confused, "That's an old story passed down about a wolf Prince who was lost to his people. His Father, the Alpha, sent teams of his strongest soldiers out to search for him until he died without ever finding his lost son."

"It was also told that the Pack continued the search long after the Alpha had passed, until the very last member strangely died as well. Drained of blood I believe it was told."

Caroline gasped, her eyes flying to Klaus who stood frozen with his lips pressed together, his mind no doubt spinning as her own did. If the story and her assumption was to be believed, this meant that Klaus's people knew what had happened to him, had searched for him for centuries only to be killed by vampires one by one over the span of all the generations. Her Grandma's sleepy voice pulled her from Klaus's gaze.

"Before I head off to get my beauty sleep there is one other story you should look into again," She leaned on Caroline for support as she helped her from her rocking chair, " _The Eternal Queen._ "

Caroline looked at her Grandma questioningly who in turn, simply patted her cheek in a loving manner saying cryptically, "Aye, these old bones feel many things blowing afoot. The Moon and all her glory bring many changes as she chases the horizon. We may not have mates and such nonsense as some of the fables say, but we do have destiny and the two of yours have been wrapped around the same thread for as long as you both have lived." Before she disappeared into the house leaving Caroline feeling as though she had more questions than answers.

XXX

Cryptic messages and old stories had to be placed aside. With the moon on the rise and the sun making its retreat, the time for the wolves to come out to play had arrived. Caroline had explained to Klaus over lunch out by the pond a few days ago that it was her duty to watch over the shifting of the other members. They would turn in a hidden glade deep within the mountains, free to run, play and hunt any animals they crossed among the terrane. She had understood his need to shift with only her, but he understood she would only have so long she could control her own shifting. They fully planned to take advantage of her Alpha ability to hold off her turning until the last member of her Pack had begun theirs. Klaus had been slightly skeptical, if not mildly bashful, when she explained that by being here and involving him in as much Pack events as he had, he too had begun to be considered a part of their Pack.

Klaus watched in awe from his perch above on a small hill as the moonlight danced through the trees, lighting the rolling and running wolves below them in the glade. "Amazing." He uttered before turning to find a sight the stunned him breathless.

Caroline had pulled out a plastic tote and had begun removing her clothing while his attention had been diverted. The moonlight gave her skin, that quivered in excitement of what was to come, an ethereal glow as she stood in nothing but her bra and panties.

After placing her folded shirt on top of her jeans and shoes inside the tote, Caroline stood straight, flushing at the look Klaus gave her. "You do know we turn naked. It's not like you didn't just see a bunch of other girls do the same thing."

Gulping, Klaus recovered and steeled his body against the natural reactions that begged to be seen and offered her a smile as he followed suit and began removing his clothing, "Yes but none as beautiful as you, forgive me if your natural charms got the best of me."

Caroline felt her heart hammer inside her chest as she watched him remove his clothing until he was standing in nothing but a pair of tight black boxers. Her wolf inside her howled, as well as the woman half of her, wanting nothing more in that moment than to sink their teeth into him and feel every inch of his lean muscles twitch as she…Shaking her thoughts, knowing that time was running out she covered her own ogling by reprimanding him, "Yes well, for someone as old as dirt you'd think you would have been control."

Klaus chuckled as she huffed and walked to the center of the small clearing they were in. He wanted to tease her about the flush covering her skin and about the way her eyes seemed to speak of how much she wanted to eat him alive. Under any other circumstance he would have taken advantage of their situation with the hopes of more pleasurable activities to come but he could see the discomfort she was holding back at the way the moon was calling out for her.

All the playfulness fell away from them both as he stood three feet in front of her and she began talking in such a soothing manner that his wolf nearly purred with the want to do as she said, to be able to stretch out on four legs and chase after this delicious creature.

"It may sound silly but keeping your breathing calm and relaxed, so you don't elevate your heart rate is key here. Yes, there will be pain, but don't be afraid of it. Don't hide from it and don't fight against it. When you do, it consumes you and ruins what should be a magical and natural experience." Her skin rippled over her body as her eyes flared a golden yellow, "This is who we are Klaus. This is who _you_ were always meant to be. Embrace it. Hold onto it. Feel the power and calling of your wolf and become one with it."

Klaus began to feel his muscles tensing, his bones feeling as if they would snap at any moment under the pressure.

" _Breath Klaus."_

He heard her say in a soft command, not realizing that he had begun to hiss through clenched teeth. Relaxing his jaw he allowed his breathing to calm, to slowly inhale and exhale as the twinges of pain began to feel oddly comforting.

Caroline smiled widely, "That's it. He's a part of you Klaus. He always has been and always will be. With your wolf joined as one with you, you will never be alone."

Her words struck a cord deep within him. _That_ had always been his fear. _That_ is what always had him holding onto things too tightly. _That_ was what always had him running from thing to thing, place to place.

He didn't want to be alone.

That was what this Pack, who welcomed him with open arms, had gifted him with. They taught him that he would never be alone. That he never truly had been alone. Through all this time, all the pain and suffering, his wolf had been there all along.

Caroline saw it the moment he accepted who he was and accepted the turning. Her pride soared at watching this man who had been the biggest terror of all the lands for centuries finally become one with himself. Klaus had finally after all this time found his home within himself.

They both knelt to the ground, staring into the other's eyes as their bodies twisted and morphed into that part of themselves that wasn't hiding inside, but was there with them all along.

Klaus stood on all four paws, shaking his large fur covered body. The deep black of his fur shining in the moonlight making Caroline think of it as a dark starry sky.

Klaus watched, enthralled by Caroline's beauty as he set his eyes upon her glorious wolf for the first time. Her snow-white fur with its streaks of grays reminded him of the snowy mountain tops deep within the Alps that he always found peace when he visited. So busy studying her with an artist's eye, a painting already formulating within his mind, he missed the playful gleam that lit her eyes right before she pounced on him then took off down the hill.

They frolicked and played, giving chase to each other before weaving in and out of the Pack. The loud yips and barks of the other wolves filled Klaus with a sense of belonging and acceptance that he had long since missed from his life.

He was in the mists of a playful battle, wrestling with the other wolves with a small group circling them when a loud snarl pierced the air, bringing them all to attention and at the ready for an attack. Klaus and the others glanced around in confusion, wondering where the intruder was when a sharp whistle of an arrow being let loose rang through the air and Caroline leapt over the group only to come crashing down to the ground with a painful yelp.

Klaus bounded over to her, using his snout to push her to her side, his eyes widening in shock at the arrow protruding from her chest. The sharp scent of White Oak hit his nostrils causing him to recoil with a vicious snarl knowing that whoever had done this had meant it for him and not her.

 _Not her! Not her! Not her!_

His mind screamed as he began to shift back into his human-like form, his ears picking up on a muffled curse from the top of the hill where he and Caroline had shifted just a few hours ago. Breathing deeply past the pain of his sporadic shifting, he pointed towards the hill where the sound had come from, "There!" Watching in pleasure as a large group took off after the culprit who dared to attack their Pack and injure their Alpha. Gently scooping Caroline's bleeding and whimpering form, Klaus glanced to the group that surrounded him, realizing they were staying behind to protect their Alpha, "Get Bonnie. As fast as your legs can run, get Bonnie here now!"

A group of six took off towards the neighboring Coven where Bonnie lived as Klaus, flanked by ten wolves, flashed back to the farm house. The alarms were raised the moment they hit the property, all members whether too young or too old to turn, felt the moment their Alpha was hurt.

Caroline's Grandma pushed many out of the way, ordering the older teens to check the roads, that she had a feeling someone had helped whoever did this. Missy came bursting and elbowing her way past the crowd to kneel next to Caroline where Klaus had laid her.

After looking her over, with all holding their breaths, Missy looked up with tears dripping down her face, "We can't take it out. If we do, it will kill her instantly and if she shifts…" Her tears clogged her throat, unable to say out loud that no matter what they did, their beloved Alpha was going to die.

Klaus, in a numb rage, pulled the pants on that another member had handed him just as everything around them exploded in activity at once.

The car carrying Bonnie skidded to a halt in the gravel beside the farm house, the wolves flanking her as she ran as fast as her human legs would carry her.

The group of older teens on four wheelers surrounded a Jeep being driven by another of their group with a screaming female held within came to a stop close by as a group of wolves came into view, dragging a bloody and unconscious man by their jowls.

Klaus quickly put the pieces together as Hayley was tied up and kept inside the Jeep and the wolves dropped the culprit in the center of the group a few yards away from Caroline.

Klaus's yelled of red hot rage seemed to waken Tyler where he laid in the center of a Pack of angry wolves. Bonnie's hand latched around one of Klaus's arms, Caroline's Grandmother on the other as he made to attack the whelp. Snarling he glanced between the two women but it was her Grandmother's voice he broke through to him.

"You're the only one who can save her now. She _needs_ you. There will be time for justice later."

Gently knocking their hands off him he ordered, "Keep his bloody neck snapped!" He smirked hearing the crack of bones before he quickly flashed to Caroline's side, shakily placing her head upon his lap wishing he did not have to do this this way, wishing she could speak to him in her human voice, to assure him that this was what she wanted. He glanced quickly to Bonnie, his questions blaring in his eyes.

"You know what to do Klaus. You know what Ayana said. She has to accept it and you have to feel it within your heart that you do this unselfishly. It's the only way to be sure that the sire bond won't take effect." Bonnie replied, wishing that they didn't have to take this course of action. That Caroline would be fully herself to make this choice.

Klaus smoothed her matted fur from her pain riddled eyes with a trembling hand as she whispered to her in a shaking voice, "Do you understand that this is the only way to save you?" She whimpered with a small nod of her large head, "Do you want this Caroline? I can let you die, if that's what you want." He choked on the words as if they were made of acid, "If you really believe that this is the end of your existence." Klaus leaned in, whispering in her ear, "But I'll let you in on a little secret, there's a whole world waiting for you. Great cities and art and music." Pulling back slightly his glossy eyes stared deeply into hers, "Genuine beauty. And you can have all of it. You can have a thousand more birthdays and be as old as dirt someday." He smiled shakily, "All you have to do is say yes." Leaning in closely he whispered quickly, "If the sire bond takes effect I swear to you I will leave and do whatever is in my power to make it stop, for I can't promise you I wouldn't do this selfishly. I can't lose you Caroline."

Pulling back Klaus attempted to reign in his emotions as he asked loud enough for the others to hear, "Do you want me to do this? To turn you into a hybrid?"

The sigh of relief was collectively heard and felt as she nodded her head weakly. Klaus didn't waste another moment, tearing into his wrist and tipping her head back to allow as much of his blood as possible to trickle down her throat and into her system. Once assured she had more than enough for it to work, he moved so swiftly that no one even saw him snap her neck.

XXX

Caroline groggily awoke to the overwhelming feeling of a dry and scratchy throat, she had never in her life felt as thirsty as she did now. The events flew through her mind and the reality of what she was thirsty for sank in.

 _Blood._

She had tied her fate to the need of blood for the rest of her days. Where some would find the thought sickening, being a wolf, she was used to cleaning blood off her muzzle after a good deer or mountain lion hunt. She knew this would be different but as she had told Klaus, the blood bank wasn't too far.

Slowly opening her eyes, she was amazed by the brightness of the room with the sunlight filtering in through the open curtains. Klaus's voice echoed in her mind, _"A perk of being a hybrid and not just a typical vampire is never needing to tie yourself to a daylight charm."_ He of course had gone on to berate how the hybrids hadn't even appreciated that. Her thoughts were interrupted when the bed dipped beside her, and Klaus's voice sounded around her.

"How are you feeling Love?"

Caroline slowly sat up, taking stock of her healed body as she did. She was sore, almost like she was at the beginnings of the flu but other than that she felt fine, "I feel fine." She answered ending in a whistle as she looked him over, "You on the other hand look like a hot mess! If I didn't know any better, I'd think you aged at least ten years."

"Watching someone you've come to fancy take a deadly arrow meant for you will do that to a person." He replied dryly.

Caroline grinned teasingly, picking at the top of the blanket covering her, "You fancy me huh?"

Klaus laughed bashfully before licking his lips with a heated smirk, "If the way you all but devoured me with your eyes the other night is anything to go by, I'd take a risk and say you quite fancy me as well."

"How do you know that wasn't just the physical attraction and the rush of the moon rising?" She asked cheekily.

"Physical attraction huh?" Klaus rubbed his finger over his chin, "I can work with that." He smiled tightly as Caroline laughed, but gave her no time to ask him why he looked so reserved. "But we can discuss that and other important matters _after_ you drink this." He held out a glass that Caroline gladly took, watching her like a hawk as she downed the entire glass.

Klaus caught the glass as the doppelganger blood rushed through Caroline's system causing her to drop the glass and hunch forward groaning. Her breath sawed in and out of her clenched jaw as he murmured soothingly, "It will be alright Love. Don't fight it."

Suddenly she sat up straight, her eyes a bright golden glow as a set of doubled fangs dropped from her gums. Her body vibrated with a rush of energy, much like when she would shift into her wolf yet ten times stronger. Vaguely she heard Klaus's voice soothing her back into a state of calm.

" _Breath Caroline. Breath. That's it. Fantastic Love."_

Staring at him and hearing his voice gave her the calming effect she needed, her fangs quickly receded back into her gums as her eyes cleared to their glorious blue. She smiled widely, proud of the control she had over herself but quickly frowned when Klaus sprung from the bed. "Klaus? What's wrong?"

His face had closed off to her as he spat harshly, "Get up."

Caroline reared back slightly, "Excuse you?"

"I said, _get up_. Get out of that bed and stand here." He demanded as he pointed to the space in front of him.

She could feel the command coming from an Alpha as any other wolf would, but as an Alpha herself she had no reason to obey him and quite frankly, he was beginning to piss her off. Narrowing her eyes at him she hissed, "Excuse you? Just who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do. _Get up and stand here_? Like I'm some untrained mutt you can order around?" She flung the blanket off her, not realizing her new abilities as she flashed to him, shoving him against a wall with her eyes blazing, " _You_ do _not_ tell me what to do! _I_ fought for you to become a part of this Pack and I can kick your ass straight on out of here in a snap!" She snarled snapping her fingers in his face as her other hand shoved him forcefully into the wall.

Relief washed over him, the tension that had been set in his entire being poured off him in waves as he began to laugh, holding her to him tightly.

Caroline struggled within his grasp, finally giving up when she couldn't break free, "Have you gone mental or something?"

Klaus pulled back, cupping her face as he smiled a deep dimpled smile, "There isn't a sire bond."

Caroline's mouth dropped open, releasing a breathy, "Oh." As she caught onto what had him so tense and why he had ordered her about like some low-level pup.

Her breath hitched as he swiftly kissed her cheek, dangerously close to the side of her mouth before looking in her eyes, "I'll leave you to clean up, I'm sure the Pack would love to hear how their fearless leader is faring."

And then he was gone. Leaving her standing there in a puddle of raging hormones and emotions. He wasn't kidding when he said the heightened emotions would take some getting used to.

XXX

Caroline was surprised at how accepting her entire Pack was with her new status as a hybrid. All were happy just to see her alive and well while others looked at her in a different sort of light altogether. With the way they walked away looking for all the world as if they were mulling over the deepest of thoughts, she was sure they would be asking for an audience with her and Klaus to talk over the possibilities of them turning as well.

As she walked to the stables where Hayley and the hybrid Tyler were being held, she couldn't help but feel the hurt pierce her chest at just how far Hayley was willing to go in order to secure her daughter as Alpha. She had discovered through the others that Hayley had known Tyler for a while, that she was the one who had helped him in breaking his sire bond. There was some speculation on whether he was the Father of her baby, since they had known each other before he had turned, but no one truly cared. Hayley had betrayed her Pack when she went off to Tyler and told him of Klaus being among their ranks.

Klaus opened the stable door for her, allowing her to walk in as he and the others filed in after her. Caroline walked with her head held high to the makeshift cell that currently housed Hayley.

"Well, well, well," Hayley sneered, "Looks like Miss High and Mighty found a way to secure her place as Alpha after all." She gripped the bars tightly as she shouted for all to hear, "But what happens to our children and our children's children when the power of living forever gets to her big head?" She screeched when no one would even acknowledge her, all turning their backs to her and lending deaf ears to her comments.

Caroline spoke regally over her as if she didn't hear a word the traitor had said, "Hayley you are hereby denounced from your Pack and your family. For the short time you have left to live, you will no longer hold the privilege of calling yourself a part of us or us a part of you. You will live out your days locked away until the time comes for your execution."

Tears began streaming down her face as she attempted to reach through the bars, "Caroline! Caroline please! I'm sorry! I didn't mean to…I didn't know that this would happen!"

"Lies!" The group began to yell only stopping once Caroline raised her hand.

"You knew what would happen, and even if you didn't, you had your own plans. Even your worthless accomplice ratted you out when he thought it would save his own miserable life!" Caroline pressed her body against the door, her eyes flashing yellow, taking pleasure as Hayley coward on the dirty floor, "You were going to wait until everyone was off chasing whoever killed Klaus, and in my grief and anger, you planned to kill me right there beside him!" Taking a calming breath Caroline took a single step back, "We could have been close, we were blood. But no longer can you claim the protection that such a thing allows."

Hayley looked up at her with dead eyes, tears streaming down her face and her voice hollow as she began to understand her fate, "And my baby?"

"We don't hurt pregnant wolves and we do not kill children, you of all people should know this. We do not judge the child by the mistakes and misdoings of the parents. As Pack law goes, the injured party is the one to make the decisions on what should happen to your offspring after your death. But I felt a betrayal of your magnitude against the Alpha of this Pack justified a vote to be had by all." She stayed silent waiting for Hayley to look up into her eyes, "Your child will be well cared for and lovingly looked after by Kate and Thomas, who have been trying for years to have a baby of their own. She will be raised with every respect that a wolf of her line deserves and will be taught the proper ways of our kind. To save her the disgrace and shame, she will only know that you did not wish to be a part of this family and that you died in childbirth, loving her with all your heart. _That_ is a boon the Pack gives for her sake, not yours."

As Caroline turned away, holding tightly to the overwhelming need to cry as Hayley's whispered, "Thank you." rang loudly in her ears, Klaus placed a comforting hand upon her shoulder. Giving him a nod of thanks, she paused in front of Tyler's cell where Bonnie had spelled a set of chains strong enough to hold him.

"Tyler Lockwood, you were warned to stay away from here not so long ago, were you not?" Caroline asked, ignoring Klaus's look of shock, instead shouting when Tyler chose to stay silent, "Answer me!"

The force of the command an Alpha vibrated his cheeks as he tried and failed to disobey, "Yes." He gritted through his teeth.

"And what did we say to you when you came onto our lands, demanding our help with putting Klaus Mikaelson down?"

Tyler struggled against the weight of her demands as he replied, "You told me that his crimes and trial had nothing to do with me and you wouldn't help me."

"And?" Caroline asked with her lips quirked.

"That if I trespassed on your lands again or attempted to use your Pack against Klaus I would be put to trial myself."

"Very good. Now, how to handle all this with you?" Caroline asked rhetorically, pacing back and forth in front of his cell door, "Even though it was me that your arrow hit, I was only hit because I was protecting my fellow wolf. Your intended target was Klaus Mikaelson, was it not?"

"Always." Tyler snap before sobering and saying sincerely, "I didn't mean for you to get hurt Caroline."

"Even so, you admit to attacking with the intent to kill our fellow wolf and striking me instead. While Pack laws dictate that either Klaus or myself can decide your fate, an even greater law exists that states that one Alpha cannot hand down punishment for another. So, I hereby retract my involvement in this matter as I was not the intended target and I leave the choice and handling of Tyler Lockwood's fate in the hands of the Alpha, Klaus Mikaelson."

Tyler was left feeling stunned and afraid as Klaus recovered from Caroline's announcement, grinning maliciously as the smirking wolves opened the cell door, allowing him to enter as Caroline left the stable.

Shortly after Caroline left, Tyler's heart hit the floor. After cleaning his hands, Klaus was happy to find Caroline waiting for him outside of the stable.

"That didn't take very long, I kind of assumed you would want to drag it out." Caroline said as she turned to look him over.

"I thought as much myself, but as I entered the cell and found myself face to face with the boy, I discovered I just wanted it over, so I could move on to more important things." Klaus folded his hands behind his back as he stalked closer to her.

Tilting her head adorably, Caroline fluttered her lashes as she gazed up at him, "Oh? What what's that?"

Klaus slowly lifted his hand, playing with a strand of her golden hair as he shrugged his shoulders, "Getting you to agree to a time for our date."

Caroline laughed, knocking his hand away and playing hard to get as she turned and began walking towards the woods, peering over her shoulder at him, "I never said I was going on a date with you."

"Not yet." Klaus smirked, "But you will," He smiled, ignoring her playful scoff, "Right after I show you what being a hybrid can really be like."

He smiled widely as he flashed to her, grabbing her hand and forcing her to keep up as they flashed into the woods. Their joint laughter ringing through the trees as Caroline decided to make him work for this date of theirs, if only a little bit.

.

.

.

* * *

I know I have been gone for a while, I am working on fixing that. I had a lot of personal things going on. I am doing better and I am very happy so don't worry! The only thing I ask of you all is to please, please, please, leave me as well as all the other wonderful writers out there a review! They are our lifeblood, they are what keep us going. They are what tells us what to do more of or what to change/fix. They build us up when we are down. And think of it, we get even more inspired when we get them, so everyone wins! Big or small-we love and appreciate them all!


	40. Secrets

**Secrets** was inspired by jamming out in my truck to P!nk. Warning to you all now, this will be a fully **NSFW** story. I am posting this here in SotM so my lovely loyal readers can easily find it. I am also creating a new story for it which can be found on my page. All future postings for this universe will be found there.

" _What do we conceal? What do we reveal?_

 _Make that decision every day…There's just so much I wanna say."_

 _-Secrets by P!nk_

* * *

Her skin felt tight across her entire body as if she would burst from the inside out any second. Her only thought with the rough bricks of the wall against her back as the shadows of the alley kept them safely hidden from view was, if she didn't feel him fill her soon she might just spontaneously combust.

His stubble scraped against the delicate skin of her neck, drawing a gasp from her that bled into a moan as his tongue soothed the delightful ache. Her hand tried to wriggle its way between them, fighting to get to his belt but their fused and writhing bodies impeded her process, bringing a frustrated whine from her throat.

"Klaus _please_."

His answering groan was so thick it sounded as if he would melt to the pavement at the pure unadulterated pleasure of hearing her plead his name with so much need. He pulled his upper body back just enough for her hand to fit between them, it was as far as he was willing to pull away from her.

His hands skated up her quivering thighs, pushing up her dress and tearing her panties at their center as she fumbled with his belt.

His belt clinked, his buttoned snapped, the sound of the zipper causing them both to shutter at just how close they were to having what they both craved more than anything else.

But what brought them here? What had happened that would have Caroline mindlessly shoving his jeans down to his thighs with her feet as Klaus yanked the front of her dress down to the mouthwatering sight of her full rosy tipped breasts?

 _Three Days Prior_

Caroline's perfectly manicured fingernails beat a rapid tattoo on the bar top, her left leg bouncing as she impatiently waited for the barkeep to bring her another drink. He finally- _blessedly_ \- set the glass in front of her, his smile tight and nervous as she raised her eyebrow in contempt at how shallow he filled the glass. He gulped as he splashed in a little more, making her sneer and wave her hand, motioning him to keep going until it kissed the rim.

He skittered off causing her to scoff, muttering under her breath as she brought the glass to her lips, "Scared of a little girl, pfft."

"I don't think it's the _girl_ that has him so skittish, Love."

Setting her now empty glass to the counter, she tipped her head back with a groan, "Seriously? My life has been hellish enough," Her hands lifted like she was pleading to an unseen force as she spoke towards the ceiling, "Did you _really_ have to send the Devil in to top it off?"

Klaus chuckled as he stretched across the bar, reaching behind it, pilfering a full bottle of Whiskey and a clean glass for himself before taking up residence in the stool beside her.

Caroline's curls went flying as her head whipped in his direction, "Um, excuse you. You can't just _take_ whatever you want." He lifted his eyebrow as if to dare her to challenge him causing her to add almost as an afterthought, "Who asked you to sit with me anyhow," Her arm waved around the space of the bar, "There's plenty of other open spaces so why don't you go try them out instead."

Undeterred by her edgy and rude demeanor, used to it as he was, Klaus filled her glass, nudging it towards her before capping off his own, "I thought to save you as well as the kindly barkeep from any mishaps. While I'm sure a replacement could be found, I have him trained to my content and I'd hate to have to break in a new one."

" _Of course_ you come here." Caroline groaned, she had come to this little bar in Mystic Falls' neighboring town for the sole purpose of not running into anyone she knew, "I don't need you saving me. There's no danger here, I left all that back home." She grumbled scathingly, "And this _was_ turning out to be a nice little retreat from all the drama before you showed up." Caroline sat up primly, ignoring him while she sipped her drink. It's not like she was going to turn it down, she had no need to look over to see his smug smile at how she had accepted it from him.

"Perhaps you should have a look in the mirror, Sweetheart. While I do enjoy seeing those lovely little signs of your inner monster coming out to play, I think you might be scaring Billy over there with your veins flickering in and out beneath your beautiful eyes." Klaus tipped his glass in her direction, taking a sip to mask his concern as she clearly didn't believe him.

Caroline scoffed, her eyes rolling heavily as she pulled her compact from her purse, "My veins are not," Her voice trailed off as she glanced in her mirror finding that he was in fact telling the truth, "…showing."

Observing her carefully as she began to panic, the veins now beginning to creep further down her cheeks, prompted him into action. His voice was firm and demanding, "Outside. Now."

The hardness of his voice kicked her into autopilot as she grabbed her purse and allowed him to be pull her by the elbow out the door. Once outside with the cool night air surrounding her, Caroline felt a semblance of her sanity return.

Yanking her arm from his hold she spun on her heels, "What the hell Klaus?!"

Never one to be cowed when it came to the importance of her safety Klaus crowded her against a nearby truck, "When was the last time you fed Caroline?"

Caroline balked at him maneuvering them so her back was pressed tightly against the cool metal as he got far too much into her personal space for her liking, "Seriously Klaus. What. The. Hell?!" Each word was punctuated with a hard hit to his chest, but she fail at budging him even an inch and it did was end with his hands firmly wrapped around her wrists.

"I'll ask you again. When did you last feed?" His eyes were livid, his voice as hard as steel showing he would in no way back down.

"God! Fine! I had a deer this morning." She tried not to wince at his look of utter disgust, instead she bristled, launching into defense mode, "Look it's been a really busy week okay? _Not_ that I have to answer to _you_ but between planning prom and graduation, trying to keep Elena from going off the deep end with Damon, I haven't had time to restock my blood bags. Not like there's many left at the hospital as it is, what with yet another megalomaniac running through town," She threw him an icy glare, yanking her hands out of his hold, "So I've had to make due."

She knocked her shoulder against him, pushing him back before fluffing out her hair, "Since you're obviously set on ruining my night, I'm going home."

Klaus pressed his lips together tightly as she riffled through her purse, digging out her keys while she stalked to her car. Flashing to her side the instant the keys jingled in her hands, he snatched them from her, holding them above his head, turning this way and that to keep them her from reaching them as he asked, "Why not just feed from someone? This animal diet isn't just repulsive, it isn't healthy. Look at you! You can barely keep control of your instincts."

Caroline stomped her foot, crossing her arms roughly over her chest, her irritation blaring from her angry eyes and cold voice, "Really mature Klaus. Give me back my keys."

"Not until you answer my question. Why not just feed from a human and gather your strength back? With another megalomaniac running through town as you so aptly put it, one would think you would do whatever was necessary to be stronger and prepared." His eyes narrowed accusingly at her as he held his arm out behind his back.

"My strength is none of your concern." She flashed to his side, hoping to surprise him, "Now give me back my keys damnit!"

He easily sidestepped her, "What if a hunter had walked into the bar instead of me, hmm? What would you have done then?" She opened her mouth to answer only to have it snap shut with his dark answer, "You would have done nothing, because you would be dead that's what."

Caroline screeched in aggravation, fingers roughly gripping her hair before tossing her arms out to her sides, "God! Why do you even _care_?!"

Her vision was suddenly filled with his furious face, but it was the soft worry held within his eyes that gave her pause and had her deflating as he whispered harshly, nearly pleading for her to understand, "You _know_ why."

Her back slumped against a random car, her face hidden by the golden curtain of her hair as she hung her head in exhaustion.

"Talk to me, Love." His voice dropped low, hoping to persuade her to open up to him, "Tell me why you won't feed from the source."

Her eyes clenched shut as she shook her head back and forth.

Taking a risk, Klaus stepped in closer to her placing his bent index finger beneath her chin, lifting gently to force her to look at him, "Talk to me Caroline. Tell me why this subject has you so distraught." His eyes flicked rapidly over her face as tears began to well in her eyes, the sight stabbing his heart more effectively than any stake ever could, "Come on Sweetheart, you know you can tell me anything. You know I'd never hurt you or betray your trust, would you have the mind to give it to me. You know I'd never judge you or belittle you. Just _please_. Tell me."

"I can't."

He flinched at her broken whispered plea, dropping his hand from her cheek where it rested and backing away as if she had burnt him. His face closed off, attempting to mask the pain of her distrust in him, of how little his word meant to her after all he had done to prove himself to her, "I see." His cold tone wavered slightly as he handed over her set of car keys, careful not to touch her, "Well then, I'll just leave alone."

"No, you don't see!" Caroline shouted at his back, "I _can't_. Not I can't _tell_ you, but I can't _do it_."

The hope flared in his eyes as he turned back to face her, voicing his confusion, "I don't understand."

Caroline scoffed, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle, her voice trembling in a symphony of emotions; the highs, the lows, the worries and the fears, all forming together to create the magnificent paradox that is Caroline Forbes.

"Of course you don't. Why would you? It's not like you've ever been fed on or compelled. It's not like you woke up with visions and memories that you didn't remember having. It's not like you ever held the fear of not knowing your own mind! When I say I can't I mean, _I can't_!"

He watched in awe as angry tears were banished to the ground with a jerky flick of her fingers, her head held high as she ruled over her emotions, his mind rapidly piecing together that she was speaking from personal experience. He vowed to discover just who had dared to hurt this shining star, just so he could rip them apart piece by bloody piece, put them back together to start all over again. But not now, now his attention was placed upon, nay, roped and wrangled in by this glorious being of darkness and light. How she managed to balance her two warring natures so profoundly, so perfectly, so elegantly was something he had never seen in all his many, many years.

"I was taught to steer away from human blood. More than that, I don't want to hurt people! To traumatize them the way I was. I will _not_ become someone's Da-damn nightmare!"

Klaus tilted his head, running over all that she had confessed, "You think that is the only way to feed?" He took a step closer, "To become the living embodiment of all that you hate and despise?" One more step and he was back in her personal space, so close she had to tilt her head back as she repeated an answer, so similar from a time so long ago.

"Yes."

Klaus chuckled fondly, brushing a lock of hair from her cheek, "Oh sweet Caroline, the things I could teach you." His head lowered, a small grin lifting the corner of his mouth, "If only you'd let me."

Her heart raced like a rabbit caught in a trap as his breath tickled her cheeks and his silky voice full of sinful promises wrapped around her.

"There are other ways to lure in a meal. Ways that will leave you full and strong while they walk away with only pleasant foggy memories."

Caroline gasped, jerking out of his hold, "I'm not whoring myself out for blood."

Klaus laughed deeply, "There's no need for things to go as far as all that."

"Then what do you mean? If there were other ways of feeding without hurting and compelling why wouldn't Stefan have told me?"

"Because Saintly Stefan avoids any chance at becoming his old self." His tongue swiped over his lips, his hands shaking with nervous energy, "Why don't you let me show you?"

"Why don't you stop being all secretive and just tell me?" She fired back.

Finding themselves at an impasse, Caroline was always a planner who loved to list the pros and cons of any given situation and didn't take well to being impulsive. While Klaus felt it would be better for her to see it all in action, to live by the moment, feeling and acting as her instincts drove her.

"I understand your aversion to feeding from a living source…"

"Yeah because people should be friends not food." She interjected with a scoff.

"That's just the crux of the matter isn't it?" He changed tactics, explaining the truth of who they were, "We are vampires Caroline, people _are_ food and it is high time someone taught you all the ways you can handle yourself without having to damage the light that is inside you." At her look of disbelief, he went on a little softer, "Not all ways of being a vampire lead to becoming what Stefan tries so hard to erase about himself. It is not so cut and dry as all of that. You need someone to guide you, to show you that there is nothing wrong with being who you are."

"And you think that person is you?" She tried to scoff, tired to show she wasn't beginning to cave.

His arms went out wide, a cocky self-assured smirk on his lips, "Who better?"

Caroline couldn't help the giggle that slipped at his visible evidence of his massive ego, her insides flipping unexpectedly at his boyishly happy grin when it did. Shaking her head, "I don't know."

"Come on Caroline," He goaded, "what is there to be afraid of?"

"Seriously?" Her eyes widened as her hands flailed wildly, "What isn't there to be?! I'd be learning form the Devil himself for starters."

"Better the Devil you know." He grinned cheekily.

She ignored his taunting rebuttal, "Then there's the whole maybe going all _rippah_ like Stefan."

Klaus chuckled at her poor attempt at his accent, overplaying his own as he replied faithfully, "You don't have it in you to become a _rippah_ , you have far too much light and conscience for that."

"And that what about my friends, my mom? What if they find out I'm out there sucking on the necks of random strangers when I'm trying so hard to get Elena to stop? I'd be a huge hypocrite that's what!"

Klaus hummed, stroking his thumb over his chin as he paced thoughtfully around the frantic circle she looped under the glow of the florescent street lights.

Caroline huffed, forcing herself to stop her rapid merry-go-round pacing, "What? What's all this hmming about?"

Klaus dropped his hand to his side, licking his lips as he studied her carefully, "If what I gathered is correct, you're most pressing concern is other's discovering just what it is you are up to."

"Um, hello?" Her eyes widened comically, "Did you not hear the going all crazy blood addict?"

Klaus waved her off, "Did you not hear me when I said that that would be impossible for you? And furthermore, do you really believe I would allow you to go as far as all that? To become something that you are not?"

She wanted to say yes, she wanted to believe that he would love nothing more than to see her go as dark as she possibly could. But there wasn't a single inch of her that could even lie and say so, "No, you wouldn't." His eyes lit up like she had just handed him the greatest gift on the planet, though she couldn't understand why.

"Right," Klaus cleared his throat to overcome the overwhelming emotions that her agreement had brought. He had fully expected her to hide from the truth and fight him on it. That she had not, that she had caved to reason and seen that he truly meant her well was not only mindboggling, but it meant that she was closer to coming to terms with just how much she meant to him much sooner than he had anticipated. _Earthshattering._ "Then I have a proposal for you."

Caroline nibbled on her lower lip in nervous hesitation, "I'm listening."

"What transpires while we are together, and I am teaching you how to feed properly, goes no further than us. We do not speak of it where others could possibly overhear, and we do not text such things for others to intercept." Klaus rolled his eyes, "This new aged generation with their documentation of their every move leaves me completely baffled. The cyber paper trail is utterly ridiculous. They willingly leave it behind them and then cry when their darker deeds are discovered." He batted his hand in the air in front of his face, "But I digress, I will not judge you or push you to do things that you do not wish to do. And while I dislike the idea immensely, if you decide that you do not wish to continue I will not press the issue again. After you have learned how to feed of course, I cannot have you allowing yourself to become so famished that you cannot recognize your own urges."

Caroline shifted her weight from one foot to another, a small frown marring her brow as she thought things over, "So what you're saying is you'd be sort of like a safe zone for me?"

"Precisely." Klaus tamed down his smile, feeling she was coming around but not wanting to jinx things as he watched her in her Caroline-like fashion being to pace back and forth, her lips alternating between pressed tightly together or caught between her teeth.

Caroline couldn't deny the fact that Klaus had some really strong points. If some random Hunter had walked in the bar tonight she would have been staked and dead before she knew what hit her. She knew she had been on edge lately, but she had no idea that it was due to lack of human blood. Well, she huffed at herself, she did know but she thought she could overcome it. She always tried so hard to overcome everything that she believed others would find as a fault in her. Twisting her fingers together she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes, what Klaus was offering would not only give her another possible avenue for survival, but it could also give her a chance to fulfil her secret desires. Her darker desires. Her _nature_. She was a vampire after all and what vampire didn't think about sinking their teeth into the neck of a warm-blooded living and breathing human? Her only stopping points had been not wanting to disappoint her family and friends and never turning into the nightmare that she had endured. There really was only one choice to be made here, but it carried with it a huge con she wasn't sure how to handle.

With her decision made she stopped pacing and faced Klaus with her head held high, "Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes, okay." She nodded firmly, "I'll let you help me."

His dimples were deep as he smiled widely, "Fantastic."

"So how do we do this? When do we start?" Caroline asked assuming they would be heading back inside to find a victim, no, not a victim. A meal? God, she really needed to find a better way to classify the people she would be feeding from.

"I assume with your busy prom and graduation planning; your schedule is fairly filled?"

"Yeah, um," She stuttered at the fact that he had actually listened to her and her frustrations, "I have a free night in three days. Does that work for you?"

Klaus laughed softly, as if he wouldn't clear whatever else he had planned for her regardless, "Three days works perfectly." He began escorting her to her car, pausing to open the trunk of his car which was conveniently parked next to hers. He ignored her raised eyebrow and rushed to cover whatever accusation she would fling his way, "For now I'd like you to take this and be sure to finish them all before I come to collect you."

Caroline took the small cooler from his hands, gasping in shock when she opened it, "Klaus! There's at least twenty bags in here!"

"Fifteen to be precise. Three days, five bags a day. The point is to have you learn to control your urges while feeding from the living. You can't very well feed form the source while your quite literally starving yourself." Klaus easily explained.

Caroline snapped the lid of the cooler closed, placing it inside her own trunk as she grumbled, "It was a pretty decent sized buck."

"Animal blood." Klaus uttered as if it was a curse word as he followed her to her car door. "Perhaps a mountain lion or any other meat-eating creature would do in a pinch but only to get you by for the moment." Letting it go for now, knowing that he already held the greatest gift in the palm of his hands, being allowed the privilege to spend time with her, he did not wish to press his luck. Taking up her hand he placed a soft kiss to her knuckles, "I'll see you in three days Caroline."

She got into her car, sitting for a moment to catch her breath over all that had just happened and what she agreed to. She quickly realized that Klaus was still in his car beside her making it dawn on her that he wasn't going to leave until he was sure she was safely on the road herself. She wanted to scoff at the overprotective behavior, of him attempting to act the part of the gentleman but she couldn't. This wasn't the first time he had done this. With all the Silas-related issues and research happening lately, her friends and his family had been working in very close quarters together. It didn't always turn out for the best, though the amount of times Damon had been stabbed or had his neck broke was always a highlight for her, but they all seemed to be getting along for the most part. Enemy of my enemy and all that.

Working side by side with the Mikaelson's had put Caroline directly in contact with Klaus all the time. Everyone had volunteered her as his partner when it came to anything, with them all claiming she was the only one he wouldn't kill, even if it was only temporary. Which in turn had her doing something she never thought would happen. Ever.

She was softening towards him. Enjoying his company even. Finding it harder and harder to remember just why it was she was supposed to hate him.

As she watched Klaus's headlights turn in the opposite direction, only after seeing her pull onto her street of course, that one huge con she had thought of earlier began bouncing around in her head like tennis ball.

If she was able to do that, to _feel_ things about him other than a mild tolerance for the sakes of their lives, while being surrounded by her friends; what would be being alone with him in this new capacity do to her? How would it affect the newly growing thoughts and feelings that she found harder to push down about him?

.

.

.

Caroline pulled her car into the parking lot of the club just as the sun was beginning to set. Her Prom committee meeting had run a little over the allotted time she had scheduled. She had called Klaus, remembering his little rant about leaving a trail, telling him it would work out better if she just met him where it was he wanted to take her. He had sounded mildly put out but gave her the address and a time to meet, she had been ready to hang up right as he said, "And Caroline? Wear something…intriguing."

She swore she could _hear_ his smirk as the line went dead.

After checking the address for herself on her phone she understood exactly what he meant by _intriguing_. He was taking her to a club a half hour away from Mystic Falls where he no doubt would expect her to tease some unsuspecting man into becoming her meal of the evening.

She easily found Klaus leaning against the side of his car, a slight curve to his lips but it was his eyes that showcased his thrill at seeing her show up.

Shutting her car door, she did a slow spin, stopping to face him with her brow lifted, "Intriguing enough for you?"

His heated eyes scan her body slowly, taking in the naked length of her smooth legs, the way her lace embellished black heels accentuated her luscious behind. The form fitted red dress hugged all her slender curves while the deep v cut of the top with the small bit of mesh material would make any man lose himself in her breathtaking cleavage. The entire ensemble was perfected with her glorious mass of loose golden curls framing her face and hanging down her back.

Caroline struggled not to bite her lip at the way he was devouring her with his eyes alone. _Yup, and this is exactly why I needed my own getaway car._ With Klaus looking at her like that without the prying eyes of all her friends she wasn't sure how long she would be able to fend her urges off.

"You look stunning Love." His lips curved into a predatory smile, "Good enough to eat and yet perfect for your role as the hunter."

At the reminder of just what it was they were here for, Caroline began fidgeting with her clutch, "So how is this going to work exactly?"

Klaus placed his hand upon hers, putting a stop to the nervous flipping of her purse, "You drank the blood as I suggested?" At her nod he smiled softly, "Good. Now we go in, separately of course," At her questioning look he explained, "While it is good and even thrilling to hunt in pairs, that is not our purpose here this evening. Tonight, you are," He chuckled wickedly, "A woman on the prowl. You must be seen as untouchable yet open enough that every man you encounter wishes to have you even if only for a single moment. Being seen walking in with me will only cause those men to covet you and leave only the weakest of sorts to approach you."

"Okay got it. This isn't my first time trying to pick some guy up you know." Caroline teased.

Klaus battled down the possessive fire kindling in his body, it didn't matter. One day, sooner rather than later if he had it his way, nights like this would be nothing but foreplay and she would never go home with a man again. "And I am sure you are more than capable of catching any man with nothing but a flutter of your lashes. But tonight will be different, tonight is about taking care of only your vampire needs."

"So, what do I do first then Jedi Master?" Her head dipped sweetly to the side as she teased, "Whoops! You're more like a Sith Lord huh?"

Klaus playfully rolled his eyes, chuckling along with her musical giggle at his expense, "First young Padawan, we drink."

Caroline's eyes sparkled at his Star Wars reference. She was a closet nerd, sue her!

They sat strategically at the bar with the short swinging door that the barkeep and waitstaff used to go back and forth from the bar out to the floor. Close enough to talk softly to one another yet far enough that no one would suspect they were there together. The club that had been half filled when they arrived was now packed with a massive crowd of dancers and people laughing with friends at the spacious red plastic covered booths that dotted the establishment.

During the time she spent seated at the bar a handful of men had already drummed up the courage to approach her, each offering to buy her a drink to which she would pick up her glass with a beautiful smile and a soft, "Maybe later." All under the watched eye of Klaus who marveled at how adept she was at piquing their interest while also securing and maintaining her distance.

Klaus glanced around the room as she finished her third drink, smirking at all the eyes who watched her every move, waiting, wondering if this breathtaking mysterious woman was waiting for a suitor to show or if she would grace their presence on the dancefloor giving them the chance they so desperately desired. He could feel the nervous, excited energy that surrounded her as a new song began to play, her slender feet tapping to the booming base.

"You enjoy this song?"

She smiled, her back pressed against the bar as her eyes surveyed the dance floor, "Love it."

"Then by all means Love, go dance." He smirked as she bounced off the stool, making a show of brushing the nonexistent wrinkles out of her dress and fluffing out her glorious hair. His voice was low and followed her as she swayed seductively out to the crowd of dancers. _"Seduce them, pull them in with your incredible sexy charms. Make them want you so deep to their core that they brave the crowds around them to get a closer view."_

He watched on in delight as she did just that, he could tell by the way she moved just seconds before his instructions that she needed no guidance when it came to this particular part of the hunt.

She moved with the grace of a sleek feline, luring her pray in before flitting away just before they could catch her. His breath raced right along with hers as she swayed and dipped to the music, licking his lips at the flush of exhilaration that tinged her cheeks. She was prime and ready to swoop in for the kill, she just needed a small push more.

His voice hummed with his barely controlled hunger of her, it was a battle to not flash out to the floor himself, wrap his arms around her and beg her to feed off him instead. The oddity of wanting to beg for anything so deeply helped him to maintain his own flagging control, _"The key is Caroline, to think of this as nothing but foreplay. When the time comes to feed, the man you choose will be so enthralled by your charms and sexual prowess that he will feel nothing but pleasure as you sink your teeth into neck and take what you need._ "

Her eyes widened a small degree as she stumbled, recovering and playing her misstep as a low dip she hissed, "Here?!" Klaus's chuckle, even from so far away brushed over her skin leaving goosebumps in its wake.

" _It's either here or in the back-alley Love. Though if you take it outside you might be biting off more than you can chew."_ More than I can handle being witness to, Klaus thought darkly.

Catching onto just what he meant, Caroline flushed as a small thread of panic lit in her eyes. Klaus quickly allied her fears in a soft soothing tone.

" _You can handle this Caroline. I have every faith that you can pull this off with nary a sideways glance from another or a pinch of pain from your target."_

Klaus's unwavering belief that she could pull this off bolstered her confidence, her body's purposeful and determined moves as she undulated sensually around the floor proving as much to him.

" _There you go Love. Now, reach out with your senses. Feel the heartbeats around you as you pick up on the different flavors that surround you."_ He watched proudly as she zeroed in on her prey of choice, a young man who moved to the beat with his eyes never leaving the erotic blonde dressed in red. _"Pull him in Caroline, let him feel the heat of you pressed against him. Make him crave you more than he has anyone before you."_

Klaus clenched his jaw as he watched the overly eager young buck press close and run his dirty hands over what he had come to consider _his_ after all his wistful fantasies _._ Deciding those were dangerous thoughts to travel down under the current circumstances, never had he felt such an intensity over another, he instead focused only on Caroline. Reminding himself that this was the purpose of their evening, that the nameless and faceless chap in her arms was nothing more than a meal.

Once he was able to focus solely on her he found himself lost to how much he craved her, now much he wanted to be the one with her body pressed so closely to his own. To feel her excited breath on his neck. She shifted their movements ever so slightly and Klaus found himself staggered at the vision before him. The sight of her reddened eyes, the tale-tell sign of the veins beneath them, the slight glint of the lights against her fangs just before they disappeared into the unsuspecting man's neck combined with her low moan at the taste of the man's blood made it feel as if all _his_ blood was rushing directly to his shaft.

Caroline slowly pulled her teeth from the man's neck, feeling invigorated at how well she had done. The tiny pricks that her fangs had made were already sealing over and, while the small amount of blood she took from him wasn't enough to hurt him, it was enough to leave her body humming. Her sparkling blue eyes flashed to Klaus from over the man's shoulder, her breath catching at what she found there. His body was wound tightly, like he was ready to spring at a moment notice, his jaw was clenched, and his cheeks were flushed. His eyes burned so brightly she felt the fire lick across her skin from across the room. She could see his heart pounding from where she still danced in the faceless man's arms, even more, she could see the effects of what he had witnessed pressed tightly within the confines of his dark jeans.

Something inside her snapped, her breath racing as she moved mindlessly out of the man's arms, Klaus mirroring her steps as he stood from the bar stool and began to stalk her towards the back exit of the club.

The cool night air did nothing to calm or clear her head. She wasn't even sure of she wanted it to. _Later, worry about it later._ Later she could blame it on the blood, blame it on the thrill of a hunt well done. But at that moment, when the door swung open behind her, slamming against the brick wall as if to announce Klaus's presence, _oh what a presence it was_ , she had nothing to blame her next move on except the way he looked at her and how it scrambled every coherent thought down to just one that rushed through her body with the force of a freight train.

Oh! How much she wanted him.

She was reduced to nothing but a ball of need, lust and want as she flashed to his waiting arms just as the door slammed shut behind him. Klaus's deep and husky groan as her legs wrapped around his hips, locking behind his back as hers met the brick wall did nothing but ramp her overwhelming desire higher.

Feeling her body clenched so tightly around his own, her fingers grasping his hair in her tight fists as her lips crashed against his, all teeth and tongues, felt more than he ever could have imagined them to be.

It was Heaven and Hell all wrapped up in a devastatingly delicious package.

Heaven because this was Caroline- _Car-o-line-_ writhing her core, so extremely turned on that the heat of her seeped through his jeans against his throbbing and aching shaft.

Hell because as much as he had longed for this; he didn't want it to happen like this. Not when a chance stood that she would come to regret this the moment the lust for both sex and the high from the blood died down.

A deep agonizing groan tore from his lips as hers cut a path over the sensitive skin below his ear, teeth nibbling on his lobe before her tongue danced wickedly over the cords of his neck bringing to mind the wonder of how it would feel if she did such things to other parts of him while on her knees.

Gaining a small semblance of sanity, Klaus used the wall and his hips to support her weight as he regretfully held both her shoulders to push her back. "Caroline, wait. Not now. Not here."

Her wild eyes danced with frustration and lust as she glared at him, her lips puffy and just begging for an earthshattering kiss that cost him every bit of his self-control to deny giving her. But it was her next words that shattered and rocked him to the very core of his being.

"Yes _here_ , yes _now._ " She purred as she unfairly rolled her hips, taking hold of his shaking head between both her hands, "I'm tired of fighting this Klaus. Of fighting you, of fighting myself."

"But…"

"No. No buts." She told him firmly, before stroking his face, letting her nails scratch through his scruff making _him_ purr. Her voice was as soft as the wind whispering through the trees, her eyes shining with lust and honesty, "I don't know what it means, I don't know where we go after this. I could lie and say it's the blood, the hunt. But we both know that isn't true. The only thing I know for sure is that if I don't have you _here_ , _now_ , I might just go insane."

Klaus growled deep from in his chest, "Well then, we wouldn't want that." His hand raced to her hip, his other gripping the back of her neck as he hauled her in for that kiss her lips had been begging, _tauntingly so_ , for. He gladly swallowed her moan of contentment, letting her breath fill him with her essence, holding captive inside him for as long as he could. Never wanting to release it, to release _her_.

In all the times he had envisioned them being together like this, his shaft in his hand protected by the darkness of his room, it was never this rushed intensity. He always imagined their first time together with him working her up with every ounce of finesse and skill he possessed. But as Caroline rocked her body against him, her throbbing core burning like hellfire against his aching shaft, he couldn't imagine it happening any other way.

Her skin felt tight across her entire body as if she would burst from the inside out any second. Her only thought with the rough bricks of the wall against her back as the shadows of the alley kept them safely hidden from view was, if she didn't feel him fill her soon she might just spontaneously combust.

His stubble scraped against the delicate skin of her neck, drawing a gasp from her that bled into a moan as his tongue soothed the delightful ache. Her hand tried to wriggle its way between them, fighting to get to his belt but their fused and writhing bodies impeded her process, bringing a frustrated whine from her throat.

"Klaus _please_."

His answering groan was so thick it sounded as if he would melt to the pavement at the pure unadulterated pleasure of hearing her plead his name with so much need. He pulled his upper body back just enough for her hand to fit between them, it was as far as he was willing to pull away from her.

His hands skated up her quivering thighs, pushing up her dress and tearing her panties at their center as she fumbled with his belt.

His belt clinked, his buttoned snapped, the sound of the zipper causing them both to shutter at just how close they were to having what they both craved more than anything else.

The first brush of his hot member against her weeping core made her lips tremble as now _she_ felt as if she could melt to the pavement in a puddle at his feet. His fingers pinched and flicked her pebbled nipple, their eyes glazing heatedly into the other's as Klaus pulled his hips back before arching his back, surging forward, her center so slick he needed no assistance at easing his way inside her.

Their shaky breathing mingled together as Klaus seated himself fully within her quivering depths. Pausing to take a moment to rejoice at the extraordinary indescribable feeling at being inside her, at the sublime pleasure of their bodies _finally_ merging together as one. His forehead leaned against hers, taking in the feeling of her surrounding him when her demanding voice cut through him, making his shaft jump in painful pleasure at her demand.

Caroline's hands raked down his back over the top of his shirt, "Move. _Now._ "

His eyes fed off her every reaction as he rolled and thrust his hips. Cataloging every secret place that made her keen or cry. That caused her to shiver and tremble.

Caroline's hands found their way under his shirt, nails digging into the flesh below his hips, as she pleaded, "Harder."

Klaus thrusted his hip with more purpose, his head falling back with a loud long groan as they both began to shudder under the force of their mutual pleasure.

The sounds coming out of him were so erotic, so primal, that they affected her in a way she had never felt before. Her body hummed in excitement knowing that s _he_ was the one to cause such desire, such pleasure in him that he didn't have a care who heard him in the throes of his passion. She could feel her orgasm rushing to the surface, ready to explode at any second. But it wasn't enough, she needed him to watch, she need to look him in the eyes when she came. She need to stare in his eyes as _he_ came. Where all these feelings came from she didn't know, and didn't care, never had it felt this intense, never had anyone awoken such carnal desires and need in her.

Her hands flew up to neck, threading her fingers into the ends of his hair, her voice dripping with desire, "Look at me. I need you to look at me."

His eyes faded from yellow to gray and back again as he did as she demanded. The instant their eyes met it was over, yet the moment felt as if it stretched on forever. Their bodies shook and trembled, sweat dripping off them both as they shouted and keened as their release took over their very beings.

Klaus dropped to his knees with her body draping over him languidly as they fought to catch their breaths. The lights from the parking lot in the distances flickered before shutting off, reminding them both where they were and signaling to them just how long their frantic mating had gone on for.

Caroline almost felt embarrassed but looking up to see him just as wrecked as she was made her lips quirk, pecking him on the nose much to his bemusement. Her voice nothing more than a breathless giggle, "The club must have closed."

Klaus ran his hands softly up and down her back with a quiet chuckle as he joked, "Aye, it would seem we missed the party."

Caroline pulled back slightly, her lips quirked, "Did we?"

His dimples appeared as he shook his head, "No, I suppose we did not."

Klaus blissfully walked beside her back to their cars after they had both righted their clothing as much as they could.

"I don't know what this means." Caroline blurted suddenly as they stopped beside her car.

"I know." Klaus answered with a clear understanding.

"I don't want anyone to know." She hedged with careful hesitation worried over his reaction.

Klaus smiled, easily picking up on her concern as he half expected it. But what she didn't know was, neither did he. For vastly different purposes than she no doubt. Where she was worried over what the others would say, or do, he was more of the mind that he did not want them interfering. He finally had had a taste of her, he was not about to go without her again "I know."

"And you're okay with that?" Her surprise and skepticism coloring her voice.

"Why wouldn't I be?" He shrugged as he lazily picked up her hand, tracing his fingers over her flesh, "I've no doubt we both have things to come to terms with here when it concerns the other. I have no desire for anyone's meddling during that process. When you decide what you want it will be because of _you_ Caroline, not the prejudices of others."

She knew he meant her, yet she was stunned and deeply touched that he understood and was accepting of it all. It seemed so out if his normal, I'm-the-king-of-everything character. It's what prompted her to cup his cheek, kissing him softly in the lips, quickly pulling away with a tender smile and hopping in her car and driving off before she changed her mind and ripped his clothes off again.

She let her mind zone out on the music and the pleasant buzz of satisfaction as she drove home. She vowed to just enjoy the events of the evening and worry about the rest tomorrow, worry about all the changes and what the meant later.

The one thing that didn't change, that was a constant in her life lately, the headlights that followed at a discreet yet watchful distance. The thought that Klaus was behind her, doing everything he could to give her space yet keep her safe made her smile as she walked into her house. And there it stayed long after she had cleaned up and changed, playing gently on her lips as she drifted off to sleep with his scent still burned within her senses.

.

.

.

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Buckle up- this is going to be one hell of a ride! Leave a review- don't be shy.


	41. All Things MikaelsonUntil Her

I know it has been a long time. I've let my fears get in my way and cloud my inspiration. Letting you all down, and even more so, letting myself down. I finally bit the bullet and asked for prompts on tumblr to help ease me back into the swing or writing and all things Klaroline. Here are the first two that I finished. I have another done as well, and it is posted on my tumblr but I still need to format it for this site. So look for that one to be added tomorrow in it's own chapter.

* * *

 _ **PROMPT: Caroline: "So I've got good news and bad news." Klaus: "Well, what is the good news?" Caroline: "I will never do it again!"**_

 _All Things Mikaelson._

Caroline smoothed the nonexistent wrinkles off her knee length blue dress hoping her clammy hands didn't leave behind any watermarks. The blue brought out the darker shades in her eyes and was one of Klaus's favorite color on her, coming in at a close second to- as he liked to say- the flushing hue he brought out of her well satisfied body. Which is why she had chosen it.

After leaving Kol- who had flashed off faster than she could blink to get a head start in the opposite direction than his brother- she scaled up the wall of her apartment building and ducked in the open terrace window. Her blood soaked and tattered clothes went straight into the garbage. Cringing as she passed the mirror in her bathroom at the healing wounds that covered her body and her ratty hair filled with twigs, leaves and bloody globs of things she'd rather not think about. She hurried through a thorough cleaning and primping to make herself look her best.

She'd need every advantage she could get.

Chewing on her tongue in an effort to steel her nerves, and not bite her lip and ruin her lipstick, she stared at the front door to the Mikaelson home wondering why Klaus hadn't opened the door even though she hadn't knocked yet. He always had this sixth sense about when she was around him, leaving it difficult for her to surprise him. Either he was anticipating their date for the evening and wanted to draw out the anticipation or the more dreaded idea, he had somehow found out about what she and Kol had gotten into, against his expressed wishes, and was livid with her and just drawing out her agony.

Sucking in a deep breath she quickly rapped on the door before she let her nerves guide her and took off after Kol in hopes that Klaus would take it out on him before turning to her. She hated herself for even thinking such a thing.

She heard his overly measured steps as he made his way to the door, wracking her nerves up even higher. The slow heavy steps gave away nothing of who would greet her once the door opened. Would he be the Hybrid of Mystic Falls? Luring her in with a false sense of security, ready to lash out at a moments notice? Or would he be the man she had come to know here in New Orleans? The man who was still that same Hybrid and yet so much more to her. Lover, confidant, friend. Boyfriend? They had yet to decide on a title for their relationship. He liked to call her, Mine. She sometimes liked to call him, domineering jack-ass but also felt Mine was an excellent choice.

With her mind now wandering down the familiar path of just what they were to each other and how to explain it to others, she missed the instant the door handle turned and the door opened.

His reverent inhale drew her attention back to the moment at hand.

"You look exquisite, Caroline."

They way he all but worshiped her name, no matter how many times he said it, still had the power to send shivers down her spine.

Lover, confidant, boyfriend-type it was then, she thought with a genuine smile before reality slammed home and she had to force the smile to stay in place. _This won't last for long._

Klaus frowned, as always, picking up on her changes of mood before she could try and hide them. He motioned her into the house, his eyes and senses scanning the area for an impending threat before deeming it safe and closing the door behind them.

"You wouldn't be cancelling our plans for the evening, would you? I know Miss Bennett is in town, but it was you who explained the importance of couples having a date night. If I recalled correctly it was my newest canvas you took over and turned into a full out color-coded diagram."

She chuckled at the memory and how they had promised to always leave all the outside drama at the door and spend one night a week focusing on just each other. She caught the guarded heat in his eyes as they both remembered just how that promise was made- naked and covered in paint, "And I seem to recall that canvas mysteriously disappeared afterwards. Although," she tapped her chin with a hint of a smirk, "I think I might have caught sight of it hidden in your personal All-Things-Caroline shrine you think I don't know about."

The blush that stole over his cheeks warmed her heart. Though she hated that guarded look in his eyes, as if he was trying to hold his emotions in check, in fear of her canceling their plans. Always still fearfully that she would wise up and leave him. His words, not her own.

Smiling softly, she shook her head, "I'm not cancelling. Not even thinking about it." She cringed slightly even as his breath left him is a relieved rush. _He_ might want to cancel though, once he found out what she had been up to earlier.

Klaus narrowed his eyes, folding his arms across his chest, his voice tight with suspicion, "Then what has you looking as if you might flee at a moments notice. Even more curious, you're dressed as if we have a night on the town ahead of us when I clearly recall we chose to stay in this evening for a quiet dinner and a movie in bed. Something tells me you won't be comfortable wearing such an adorable outfit while cuddled in said bed so that only leaves the option that you are trying to butter me up."

Her lips curved into her most dazzling smile as she fluttered her lashes, "Is it working?"

"Caroline."

His growl of her name brought shivers of a different sort as it spoke of his irritation and waning patience with her.

"Okay. Okay." Caroline sighed deflated, "So I've got good news and bad news."

Having the sinking feeling their night was going to end in shambles after he heard what she had to say, he opted to try her optimistic approach in lieu of his typical rage first and ask questions later, "Well, what is the good news?"

"I will never do it again!" Caroline announced with a firm nod of her head.

Klaus blinked, then blinked again. His mind drawing a blank at what she could possibly mean before catching onto the fact that if _this_ was all she had for good news he almost dreaded what the bad news would be.

Gritting his teeth and keeping his arms firmly folded and locked against his chest to keep himself from doing anything rash, like breaking every item in the room around them. He would never hurt _her_ , but many a priceless knick-knack had fallen victim in her place, he snarled, "The bad news?"

She nibbled her lower lip with her teeth, her body swaying like a willow tree in the breeze as she ambled back and forth in front of him, her eyes flitting from his face to the floor, back to his face and down to her twisting hands as she spoke.

All of it signs that what she had to say would push him to his limits.

"So, I met with Kol for brunch today. And, well, lunch turned into drinks which turned into more drinks. And you know how Kol and I get, we play some darts, we play some pool and then we have our little vent-sessions about All-Things-Mikaelson."

Klaus kept his jaw clenched shut, offering her no more than a sharp nod of his head.

In the beginning of their relationship he had hated how his younger brother would whisk _his_ girl away, calming Caroline as his very _bestest friend ever._ Bloody fights had ensued until Caroline too claimed Kol as her, the thought still made Klaus want to gag, _bestest friend ever._ Explaining to him how Kol was her safe place to vent about _all things Mikaelson_ as she was to him. That had only sent him into a red haze of rage, feeling he was not enough for her until she had drug him upstairs and into his room to show him just how good he was for her. In the peaceful lull of the aftermath of their passions she drew nonsensical patterns on his chest as she explained softly.

" _Rebekah is still too competitive with me when it comes to you for her and I to really be friends. I don't know anyone else here Klaus, and Bonnie is the only friend I have left, that talks to me anyways. But she's not here. And Kol, in his own weird way, wants_ me _as a friend. He listens to me and doesn't judge me for anything! In fact, he has always, even when he bad mouths you, encouraged me to make things work between you and I. He says even though you're still a world class asshole, I make you less of tyrant."_

 _His lip had pouted against his control, his voice showing enough of his insecurities making him cringe, "I though_ I _was your friend."_

 _Her soft understanding smile had soothed his upset in an instant, "You are so much more than my_ friend _Klaus. But still, you have people, Elijah, Marcel and even Josh, though you don't like to admit that last one. Kol and I, we don't have anyone else. Plus, haven't you seen how…tamer, for lack of a better term, Kol has been since we've been hanging out? He's able to talk to me without worry of my looking down on him or trying to corral him like you and Elijah like to do. Besides, if you and I are going to have any chance of making this relationship healthy and work, I need at least one of your siblings to like me enough to stand up for me against the others."_

That had been the first time she acknowledged they were more than just friends-with-benefits. The first she had claimed them to be in a real relationship. Just the thought of the agonizingly slow love they had made after still had the power to drop him to his knees.

But not this time. In the split second he had reminisced after nodding his head, he maintained control of himself, much to Caroline's blatant disappointment.

Sighing she continued, "Yeah, so, um, we got to drunk-venting earlier than usual. Me snapping about how you won't just let me prove myself to certain local factions who seem to always want to use me as your own person bait. Kol slurring and raving how if I could take you on then I could take on anyone, with him at my side of course." Caroline wisely left out the part when Kol had deemed himself to be the strongest Mikaelson as she watched Klaus piece things together. His face going from red to pale, angry to fearful as his eyes skated over her body in search of injuries long since healed.

"You. You. You."

Oh shit. Caroline's eyes widened. Klaus only stuttered like that, his chest heaving and his golden eyes flickering in and out when he was really and truly pissed off.

Whatever he found on her face must have assured him of her actions before he bellowed so loudly the crystals of the chandelier overhead shook.

"You went after the werewolf faction set to destroy me though you?!"

She at least had the decency to look to the floor sheepishly before giving him a shaky smile, "Good thing I had your blood just this morning." Her eyelids lowered right along with her voice, hoping and failing to entice him, "Nothing like a little blood sharing between lovers, right?"

His body vibrated with so much rage she was surprised he didn't drill a hole straight through the floor, "You could have been killed!"

"But I wasn't!" All the reasons she went after the stupid asshats who thought to use her in the first place came rushing back, "They wouldn't keep coming after me if you would have just let me prove myself! Prove to them and everyone who thinks to use me against you that I am _not_ some dainty little flower, some damsel in distress for them to kidnap and torture to get to you! I've _told_ you I wasn't going to be used like that ever again! That I would do what I had to do to prove it. And guess what Sherlock, it worked! I had them running faster than a newborn vampire smelling its first scent of fresh blood!"

"Did you ever think for a moment that it wasn't that I didn't know you could handle yourself? That it was only because _I_ wanted to be the one to take you? That _I_ craved to go headlong into the battlefield with you, side by side?! That I had been watching and waiting for the opportune moment when _our_ attack would hit them the hardest?!"

Tears pooled in her eyes, her shaking hand covering her quivering lips and trembling voice, "Oh my God. I'm so sorry.", draining his anger with her instantly.

Flashing in front of her he took her hand away from her face, brushing the back of his fingers across the smooth skin and wiping away her tears as he spoke softly.

"I understand more than any other your need to prove yourself to everyone. To yourself, to me. I'm upset with you yes Caroline, but not angry. I'm disappointed to have missed seeing you in action, going against our enemies together, but I'm sure there will be plenty of battles to come." He smiled as she laughed softly in agreement. Pulling her in close he pressed his lips to her forehead, the what-if's clamoring for his attention, "My biggest fear is losing you. You could have been captured and I wouldn't have known, you could have been killed and I wouldn't have been there to stop it."

Her arms tightened around him, regret pouring through her before Klaus spoke again, this time harsher, his heated breath mussing the hair on top of her head.

"You survived, to which I am utterly thankful for. Kol on the other hand will not fare as well."

Nothing but a burst of air announced his departure, leaving Caroline standing in shock with her arms open as if holding him still.

"Oh shit!" She exclaimed as she whooshed to her purse on the entry table, her phone in her hands and to her ear in a flash as she rushed to her car, knowing it would be the fastest way to catch up to Klaus and where he was undoubtedly heading, "Bonnie!" Her voice was frantic as her friend answered the phone and she peeled out of the driveway, "You better put a barrier in the hotel room _now!_ Klaus is on his way."

A scrambling could be heard through the line before Caroline hung up, knowing her message was received, so she could concentrate on maneuvering the winding streets towards the hotel without accidentally hitting anyone or anything in her way.

Vaguely in the back of her mind thinking how glad she was that Bonnie had wanted her own place to stay while in town. Not only because she didn't want to even _think_ of her two best friends going at it like rabbits but that the damage that would inevitably occur tonight would not be in her own apartment. She was so over having to replace her things because of All-Things-Mikaelson.

Fin

* * *

 **PROMPT: Rebekah tries to set up Klaus and Caroline.**

 _ Until Her._

Rebekah scowled at her phone reading the text for a second time not believing her luck.

 **Caroline:** _ **OMG! OMG! O. M. G! I just spent the most AMAZING afternoon ever with a guy I met over coffee! Hot! And I'm not talking about the coffee! ;) We have so much in common it's almost scary. He was so easy to talk to and for like the first time ever a guy actually opened up to me. And I didn't even have to pry anything out of him! Can you believe it?! We talked over coffee, we flirted over lunch, we laughed and joked as we walked through downtown and then bam! He asked me if I was free for dinner. After spending almost the entire day with me! Can't you believe this?! It's like he can't get enough of me. *sigh* eek! So anywho, I know we had plans tonight but I totally knew you'd understand after everything. The first date I'm actually excited for since way before he-who-shall-not-be-named! Well screw him! I'm actually happy for the first time in forever! I know you'll be mad at me but I also know you'll get over it soon because you love me as much as I love you! Xoxo! Time to get ready for MY DATE!**_

Rebekah wanted to be angry, she really did, part of her was. All her hard work! All her failed attempts! Right down the drain for some slum Caroline met over coffee. Coffee! How utterly cliché.

Caroline had moved to New Orleans six months ago and was here for almost a month before Rebekah had interviewed her for a job at her party planning company. She had taken a liking for the girl immediately. Could see that behind her false cheery exterior hid a wealth of pain the likes of which rivaled her own. But unlike some, Caroline still held a breathtaking zest for life, a will to move on and persevere.

After a few weeks of a tentative working friendship they blossomed into a full fledge BFF status. That was when they began sharing their horror stories.

Rebekah had shared with her how her youngest brother had died, which on top of the already rocky family dynamic, had sent them all spiraling into complete darkness.

That she had branched out on her own, much like her favorite brother Nik had done. Distancing herself from the family name, going as far as being known by her Mother's maiden name instead of carrying the weight the Mikaelson name brought with it and begun building a life a business for herself.

She had told Caroline how after her Father died two years ago, the family slowly began reconnecting once again. It was still rocky at the best of times, but she was happy nonetheless.

Rebekah had seriously debated about sharing with Caroline her true family name, as well as introducing her to her siblings, but the idea was quickly squashed after Caroline shared her own tale. The poor girl didn't need to have Kol pestering her and trying to get into her pants all the time, her Mother attempting to be civil only to snub the girl for being a so-called _lower class_ then them. Elijah, well Elijah acted way too much like a Father and less like the older brother he should have, so she avoided him at all cost. And then there was Nik. Her beloved and tortured brother, had been living in Chicago drinking, doing whatever drugs and women passed in front of his glassy eyes. Until three months ago when he showed up back in New Orleans completely sober yet looking even more haunted than when he left, not that he would tell anyone why. But he stayed sober, began painting again and lived like a closeted monk so she didn't worry, too much anyways.

Besides, Rebekah wanted to continue having something of her very own, in the beginning anyways. Her own business, her own apartment, her own group of friends not handpicked for their social status by her Mother.

Caroline's story was equally if not more heartbreaking. She grew up in a small town where everyone knew everything about everyone and never let it go. Always whispering behind concealing hands and sometimes not even caring who heard them and were hurt by their words. Her Father had left her and her Mother in the dust for another man and the entire town never let them forget it. Her teen years were rough, always competing with those around her, vying for their attention and acceptance but always feeling as though she was lacking.

When Caroline had left for college she thought she could finally get away from all the loud whispers and hurtful comments. Only her Mother had fallen ill, cancer spreading quickly through her body, bringing Caroline back home to care for her dying Mother.

While there her oldest friend, Elena something or other, Rebekah couldn't remember the girl's name, was in a freak car accident with her fiancées brother, both dying on the scene. The fiancé, Stefan, the poor soul Rebekah refused to feel sorry for, discovered that his brother and Elena had been carrying on an affair and had been returning from one of their get-a-ways when the accident had occurred.

Two weeks later Caroline's Mother died. Three weeks after that Caroline latched onto Stefan in attempts to heal herself by healing him.

A month after treating her like an annoyance, Stefan slept with her while, unbeknownst to Caroline, he was drunk. He felt so guilty afterwards, Caroline had explained, guilty for feeling as though he used his friend and cheated on his dead fiancé, that he began pulling a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde routine with her. There for her one day and then ignoring her for a week. Coming back drunk and sleeping with her to disappearing for days on end.

It had taken Caroline almost a month to tell her what had finally ended their strenuous and toxic relationship. What had drove her to sell her Mother's house and pack up and leave it all behind.

After seven months of loving someone who would never be able to love her back, because he still loved a ghost, Caroline became pregnant.

It had taken Caroline almost a month to track down Stefan and tell him the news. Her heart of hearts truly believing that the baby would finally give them something to look forward to. The baby would make Stefan-The-Tool finally wake up and start living his life, with her.

Of course, that didn't come to pass.

When she told him about the baby, he fell to his knees and pressed his face to her stomach. Caroline had told her how happy she felt in that single second. That single solitary moment before her ears caught what he was saying between his sobs.

" _Oh Elena. Elena. I love you. So sorry Elena."_

Caroline had left him sobbing on the floor and avoided his hundreds of apology calls over the following week.

The day she was ready to finally talk to him she was awaken by sharp pains. She lost the baby later that day. Two weeks later she had her things packed, a for sale sign in the yard and left in the dead of the night for the hotel she booked in New Orleans.

Stefan, whom Rebekah would skin alive if he ever came around, had never bothered to call Caroline after she left the hospital and left town.

When Caroline had told all this to Rebekah, it was Rebekah herself who cried and sought comfort from her friend. She vowed that day that she would do her best to make sure Caroline's present and future was filled with nothing but happiness. Always and Forever.

"The damned bitch! I can't even stay angry with her!" Rebekah huffed, leaning back in her office chair. It was only an hour away from when she and Caroline were supposed to meet for dinner.

Her eyes caught sight of the messy curls that belonged to her favorite brother as he walked by the window of her office to the backdoor of the building.

"Wonderful." She sneered. "The one time the git actually shows up!"

She had been trying for the past two months to orchestrate a meeting between Caroline and Nik. Feeling deep within her very bones that they would be the balm to the other's broken heart.

While in the past she had despised even the thought of any of her friends dating one of her brothers, she had lost many a friend to such a thing whether it was because of their broken hearts due to her brothers using them or because she had discovered that _she_ was the one being used to get to her brothers. But with Caroline, she trusted Caroline and knew she would be the perfect match to her brother's wounded soul. That her inner light would help banish her brother's darkness, just as Nik's darkness would help alleviate Caroline's fear of accepting her own.

Nik rounded the corner, stopping to lean against the open doorway with a happy grin on his face.

Rebekah sighed in defeat, here he was actually happy to go out with her and dressed as handsome as ever and she had to go and be the one to suck it up and break their plans.

She had had it all set. Nik would take her to the fancy restaurant where Caroline would be set to meet her twenty minutes after their arrival. After food was ordered, Rebekah would then make her excuse and leave to meet her own boyfriend, Marcel, for dinner. Leaving her best friend and favorite brother alone to hopefully bond as she wished.

She couldn't very well leave her brother at the restaurant alone, so the only option would be to break their plans. Which he would no doubt cause a scene over since she had done the same to him over and over again when he ditched her matchmaking efforts, unbeknownst to him, every time.

The lightness of his voice drew her from her dull-drums.

"Sister dearest you can officially cease your matchmaking attempts for I have met an angel."

Flabbergasted, Rebekah didn't know which part of that sentence to react to first. "You knew?!"

Nik scoffed, "You weren't very subtle nor very sneaky Bekah."

Her eyes narrowed, "Marcel told you."

Nik simply shrugged his shoulders.

"Ugh. I'll kill him!"

"Don't be too hard on him. He held his tongue quite well. I was highly impressed. It was only after a few polite threats from me that he finally caved, only telling me that you had been trying to set me up with some friend of yours."

"Polite. Sure." She snapped sarcastically.

With her plans dashed and out in the open, she sank back in her chair with a pout before really looking him over. He looked happy, genuinely happy for the first time in forever. Enough that it made her admit defeat as her curiosity over this mysterious _angel_ grew.

"So, who is she?"

"Oh no, I'm keeping this one close to the vest. I won't have you scaring her off before I've secured her as my own."

She knew she deserved that but still, she needed something, especially with how smitten he seemed, "How long have you known this _angel_?"

Nik sighed with a boyish grin that she hadn't seen on his face since before their brother had died, "Only just today. She was the only other person in the small coffee shop I frequent, and something pulled me, drew me to her. She's beautiful and so full of light and life despite all the terrible things she has suffered." Nik's face grew pensive as if it hurt him personally to even think of whatever this girl had gone through. His face quickly changed as he chuckled deeply, "Perhaps it's because of all she has endured that causes her to be as bright as an angel from heaven." Huffing bashfully at how poetic he was being he shrugged, "We spent the day together. I was able to talk to her Rebekah, really talk to her unlike anyone I've ever known. I told her things I haven't told a single soul, things I'm ashamed of, things I have failed time and time again to even tell you. And yet she didn't judge, didn't look at me with pity in her eyes. It's the strangest thing," He mused, "I've always scoffed at how easily you've fallen in love, giving your heart away only to have it smashed to pieces later. But I believe I understand now. I'd rather have her for a short time than never have her at all."

Rebekah felt her mouth dry up as she struggled to tame her racing heart and hold back the tears from her eyes, "Love?"

She watched him tense, a deeply ingrained defense when it came to speaking of his emotions, "Yeah, well." He cleared his throat and she watches in amazement as he dropped his shields, letting his excitement flood his face once more and his body relax as if this _angel_ he met did not deserve to be even thought of or spoken of with his typical walls and shields in place.

 _Amazing._ Rebekah thought.

"Maybe Bekah, maybe." He uttered softly. "So, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to meet my sweet angel for dinner and a stroll along the pier. Feel free to cancel our dinner reservations and skip ahead to your plans with Marcel. You'll have to find another sap to entertain your friend with."

Rebekah sat in stunned silence as Nik's steps faded away. Her mind replaying every second of Nik's visit before her thoughts wandered to the text she had received from Caroline just an hour before. Her eyes widened at the possibility. Her hands frantically grabbing her phone and purse, locking up the shop in a rush as she called Marcel.

"Meet me at my place in two hours." She spoke without preamble before hanging up and rushed towards her apartment.

XXX

Klaus and Caroline walked leisurely along the waterfront, their joined hands swinging lazily between them as they smiled with sparkling eyes and chatted in hushed tones.

Both wondering how it was even possible to meet someone and even entertain the ideas of such a deep connection with them after only a single day.

Both marveled at what the other had gone through. Stunned at their similar threads of Fate.

Caroline had lost her Mother, her friends, her child. Klaus had found his birth Father only days before the man had died.

He had turned to drugs and alcohol and loose women as a means to escape the constant knowledge of being utter alone. One of those women had become pregnant with his child. He instantly sobered himself up, finally feeling he had found the one person to which he could truly belong.

Not the Mother, he had assured her, but the child.

Try as he did, the Mother refused to stop using and was constantly disappearing. She finally contacted him while she was in the hospital after giving birth, almost two months early. She had left the moment he arrived at the hospital having already been released and never came back. Klaus had spent every second of his precious baby girl's far too-short life right by her side. Falling in love with her only to watch her fade away forever.

After the devastating arrangements had been made and, somehow through his grief, seen through to completion, Klaus packed up his bags and came back home to New Orleans. As he had told Caroline, he had fully intended to mourn with his family at his side but could never work up the nerve or strength to speak of Hope.

Until her. Until Caroline.

Klaus grinned with a shake of his head as he watched the lovey woman at his side take in the views around them with a light of excitement in her eyes. He never believed in Fate, never believed in the tender emotions of the heart. He felt the spark of it when he learned he would become a Father but had thought he felt that spark wither and die right along with his darling baby girl.

Until her. Until Caroline.

One look in this lovely, captivating woman's eyes and he was burnt to ash, reborn much like the fabled Phoenix. From pain to agony to new life bursting with possibilities. His old self wanted to curse him a fool for believing in such drivel as love at first sight. But the new him, the him teeming with life and prospect, scolded his old self for the fool.

Of course, he knew better than to imagine things would be all rainbows and moonbeams, he knew that life, as well as each other, would throw them curveballs and trials to work through. But even the thought of fighting with her, arguing and watching the fire he knew she held gleam in her eyes gave him a sense of excitement which he had never felt before.

"I knew it! I can't believe this!"

A feminine screech sounded behind them, causing both to spin around with jaws dropped and wide eyes.

"Rebekah!"

"Sister!"

Klaus and Caroline glanced at each other, both exclaiming at the same time, "You know her?" "She's your sister?"

Rebekah didn't give them time to say anymore, launching into her tirade.

"I've been working endlessly for months, _months_ mind you, trying to stage the perfect meet and greet between the two of you! Art galleries, cafes, dinners and movies all for what!? For the two of you to just _accidentally_ run into each other over coffee? Bloody _coffee?!"_ Her eyes narrowed at Marcel as he went to interrupt her, "I'm not finished! I'll have words with you later, even more so than on the drive here! You'll be lucky if your ears don't bleed from the force of my wrath!"

Her head swung back to her brother and friend who stood, each with an arm around the other, laughing hysterically.

"What's so funny." She snarled.

"You Beks."

"I have to agree with Caroline, sister." Klaus spoke through his chuckles.

Rebekah's hands went to her hips, her eyes throwing daggers that would have flayed the skin off any lesser being, "And how on Earth am _I_ the butt of this joke?"

"Because you've been trying for months as you said to get Caroline and I together." Klaus began shaking his head at the entire situation, "And yet here you stand in all your irate glory, angry at us for accomplishing exactly what you set out to do."

Rebekah huffed, stomping her foot.

"Hang on a second. You've been trying to set me up with your brother? Since when? I don't remember you having a brother named Klaus." Caroline asked looking between the two siblings wonder just what the heck she was missing.

Klaus grinned softly down at her, "My siblings call me Nik, while I typically go by the name Klaus. Both of which are short for Niklaus."

Caroline all but melted at the way his eyes devoured her, she could only hope that the reverence and awe they held for her never went away. She had a good feeling that hers towards him never would.

Hearing Rebekah clear her throat forcefully, Caroline looked back to her friend. "So, if this is what you wanted, why are you so upset?"

"Ugh! Because _I_ wanted to be the one to make it happen!"

Marcel wrapped his arm around Rebekah's waist, chuckling, "Does it really matter? You've got what you wanted and by the looks of it you were right all along, they are perfect for each other. Just look at the way they stare at each other."

Rebekah knew she was being a spoil sport, but she just couldn't help it. "Yes, they are positively sickening. All ooey-gooey and all such nonsense. So much so I might have changed my mind about them all together."

Klaus growled, pulling Caroline in closer to his side as Caroline gasped softly, "You changed your mind?"

The hurt and concern flowing off Caroline that she would upset her friend finally broke through Rebekah's temper tantrum. Deflating her anger causing her to admit reluctantly, "No I haven't changed my mind. But," she shook a finger at them both, "I'm not speaking to either of you for a week! Come on Marcel."

With that she spun on her heels and marched away, leaving Marcel no choice but to follow after giving the happy couple a grin and a shrug of his shoulders.

Klaus wrapped both arms around Caroline's middle, lifting her and spinning them in circles with her laughing delight.

Setting her back to her feet but keeping her within the gentle cage of his arms, he bent down and kissed her.

"I have a feeling there will never be a dull moment between us." Caroline whispered.

"Let's hope not, Love." Kissing her once more, he pulled back and offered her his arm, "Now how about we continue our date, hmm?"

Smiling Caroline looped her arm through his deciding to enjoy the rest of their night and deal with Rebekah in the morning.

There was no way her friend would stay silent for long, it just wasn't in her nature. Besides, it's seems everyone had got what they wanted.

* * *

Hope you all liked these, I aim to please. Ill be back tomorrow with a knew story for thee.


	42. Even Though

**PLEASE DO NOT SKIP THE AUTHOR'S NOTE! VERY IMPORTANT STUFF!**

 **A little forewarning about this story. This has a very small amount of smut, nothing that I would deem NSFW by any means.**

 _ **BUT**_ **that being said, I suggest sitting down with this baby, this 10k+ baby, somewhere alone, somewhere you will not be interrupted, somewhere you can scream, somewhere that (if I did my job correctly) you can go through a box of tissues without fear of discovery. The prompt asked for angst with a happy ending. I'm feeling confident that I have delivered! Now please excuse me while I run away and hide as I wait in nail biting anxiety at how this emotional roller-coaster will be received. So without further ado, I give you….**

 _Prompt: Caroline goes to NOLA, sees Klaus' new life, unicorn baby and all, and decides to do Rome, Paris and Tokyo on her own? Angst with happy ending please? Thank you! :)_

 ** _Even Though._**

* * *

"So, is this everything you wanted to show me?"

Klaus felt his heart stop at the sound of her voice, hope filling him even as he heard the scratchy quality to it. Even as he spun around to find her standing within the shadows of the floor to ceiling open window of his New Orleans home, knowing once she stepped further into the light spilling out from the room, her face would show the same evidence of her tears as her voice held.

"Caroline." He uttered reverently, still holding out hope that his senses were not playing tricks on him. That she had truly come for him, even though he stood so close to Camille that he could hear the hurt hitch in her breath and feel her body give a painful shake against his side at how he worshiped this other woman's name.

"Is it?" Caroline sneered angrily in attempts to reign in her pain as she came into full view.

His heart began to crack and fizzle. He had seen her in different stages of pain, some caused by him, some caused by others. And yet the force of her pain there in the open now was of the likes of which he had never seen on anyone. The devastation nearly equal to, if not more so, than that dreadfully, fateful day that changed the course of his family's entire history.

His mouth floundered open and closed, like a fish chasing a hook, searching for it even though knowing all the while it could be its last move and that death awaited at its sharp and twisted end.

The room was filled with others, none of which uttered a word. Some looked between the heartbroken blonde and the quickly shattering Original Hybrid in confusion. Others with menacing glee, others with sympathy at what they knew was about to come.

"Answer me dammit!" Even the hitch in her voice due to her pain didn't take away from the pure viciousness of her snarl.

She stalked her way to him and like the glutton he was for pain and anything Caroline, he still didn't utter more than a croak as he stepped to meet her in the center of the room. The center of the audience that all waited with baited breath, in stunned silence for what would come.

Her head lowered, her eyes a blazing fire that cut him more than any knife or sword ever could as she growled with her demand, "Is. It."

"No." His voice trembled over the single syllable word.

His eyes widened as hers narrowed. The entire room sucked in a soundless breath, holding it as the only sound that followed his reply was a resounding crack as her palm met his cheek. The force of it twisting his neck to the side, nearly stumbling before he righted himself. Not caring that everyone waited, some expecting him to draw blood, some expecting him to meet pain with pain. But none knew just how deeply his _own_ pain was in the face of _hers_.

None expected the stuttering broken sounds to be released from his shattering chest, "Ca-Caro-Caroline."

This time his face was met with her fist. Her enraged snarls beginning even before he could right himself again.

" _You don't get to talk!_ You don't even get to _breathe_!"

A stunned gasp was vaguely heard echoing around him as he sucked in a breath and held it. Obeying her command. Even that only served to enrage her more. Tears flowing down her beautifully, heartbroken face.

"Art, music, genuine beauty. Rome, Paris, Tokyo. Food, music, art and culture."

Each word like a stake to his crumbling heart.

" _That's_ the line of bullshit you fed me. _Those_ are the things I _thought_ you meant. But like a god damned fool I actually believed you. I actually believed that just two weeks ago all those sweet nothings you breathed, thinking I couldn't hear you as you made lo…" She gagged, "No. Not that. _Never that._ As you _fucked me_ like some worthless piece of trash, were real."

Even in the face of all the agony, he felt the tattered shredded of his heart race with the knowledge that she had heard him. Heard him whispering breathlessly of how much he adored her, how much he craved her, how much he _loved_ her. Those secret words were what brought her here. To him. The miracle of that alone was enough to give him a small amount of strength. To stand back up and deny what she so carelessly, so disgustingly, so very wrongly said. To reduce their time in the woods to a mere _fucking_ was to spit on all that he felt for her.

"Don't you dare disregard what happened between us. Claiming it as some random _fucking_ is not even close to…"

Her eyes flashed red, her fangs dropping as she launched herself at him, knocking him to his knees in all her anguished glory.

Towering over him, he could do nothing but stare at her in awe. Even with her chest heaving, and her throat cracking under the strain of her screaming she was a glorious sight to behold.

" _I told you not to speak! You stupid son of a bitch!_ You think I can't see what's in front of me?! You _used_ me, _played_ me just like everyone else! You plied me with pretty words and touches to keep your damn options open all the while, never even uttering a word that you had a fucking baby, _a baby,_ on the way! With Hayley. _Hayley!_ The one person who not only betrayed you but also me and her entire pack of mutts! And for what?! A little hint of where her family was. And you slept with her while giving me dresses and asking for _dates?!_ Then you come and fuck me, knowing full well that not only do you have a slut of a baby mama but also a little human chew-toy girlfriend back home waiting for you!?"

No one moved as she closed her eyes, her breath rushing in and out of her fire filled lungs as she tried to calm herself.

Eyes flitted from her to Klaus, even though he paid no one else any mind. His eyes waiting, watching, wondering what would come next.

Would she be finished?

Would she allow him to find some way to explain?

Would she understand and listen that the Brave Bartender was nothing more than the _friend_ she herself had inspired him to gain?

Would she listen with her trusting and loyal ears to his woes?

How he, in a moment of pure and utter weakness, a moment of crippling loneliness, had felt the despair of ever gaining her for himself and caved to the weakness of his flesh with a woman who was every bit the opposite of the one he truly desired?

Would she hear him out when he muttered his deepest, most secret fantasy?

That when they made love, yes it was that, _always and forever that,_ that day a wishful dream began to sprout, growing wings and taking flight that she would appear to him with rounded belly stating to him and the world that it was _she_ that carried his true child and the one the mutt carried was a farce?

But even prayer, even hopes and dreams and everything he wanted out of life could not stop the crushing painful blow that her next hollow words wrought.

"I'm done."

With that she spun on her heels, her head held high and proud as her body trembled in embarrassment and suffering.

Seeing her back, seeing her walking away from him, knowing if he did not stop her it would be for good, sprung him into action.

"Caroline!" He called through quivering lips, his knees crawling across the floor as his hands pushed to help raise his battered body and soul to his numb feet.

 _Not enough! Not enough!_ His mind shouted and screamed as she continued moving farther away from him.

" _Please_ sweetheart, my darling love, _please. Don't leave me._ I'm sorry, so sorry for how you found all that out, for the things you think and feel. If you would only allow me time to explain. I swear I can make it right, even if it takes me till my dying day, I _will_ make this right."

His feet stumbled as he staggered towards her, his rushing words trying to form and discover what he could say that would make her halt in her progress to be rid of him.

 _She's almost to the door you fool! Say it! Say it! SAY IT!_

Every ounce of hidden emotion, every fiber of his being, every piece of who he was flowed into his next words even as tears threatened to clog his throat.

"I love you Caroline Forbes. I love you more than I ever thought possible for one to love another. I _need_ you. Need you more than air, more than blood, more than my own family."

Her steps faltered, a croaking groan left her throat, her shaking arms wrapped around her stomach as she swayed and bend over.

 _She stopped! It worked! Keep talking you blithering idiot! Almost to her! Just a few more steps and you can touch her, hold her._

"I love you more than my own life, more than any power I could ever hope or force to gain. Let me heal you, let me comfort you. Let my love for you be enough to sustain you."

He could see her body trembling, could see the hairs on the back of her neck stand as his puffs of breath slid over her, warming her. Even though she was turned away from him, even without the sobbing he could hear, he could _feel_ her scolding tears race down her exquisite face. Not taking notice as his trembling hand slowly reached out to touch her, feel her, turn her into his arms, that those scolding tears were his own tracking endless down over his face.

He almost sighed as his fingertips brushed the skin her shaking arm, instead he choked as if wounded as she jerked violently away from him as if he had burnt her with that single soft touch.

Numbly she turned her hunched over form, that exquisite body that he had once had the honor and privilege or holding, of touching.

When her devastatingly beautiful, tear-soaked face turned to him fully the force of what he had done to her was enough to send him to his knees.

Pain shot through his body as his knees hit the floor. Nothing was as painful as when she spoke to him once more. Her voice hardly above a strained whisper.

"I wanted to believe you. I wanted to believe that you would be the only one who really meant all the things you said. That you loved me," her voice cracked, the echo of it felt deep with his breast. "That I could believe my own heart, even though my mind was scream no, as it spoke of things I never thought possible. That I had been in love with you."

Those words should have been the most beautiful, extraordinary thing he had ever heard. _Love. Had been. Not in love- but had been._ Instead they were worse than any beating, any curse placed upon his head.

"But my heart lied to me just as you did."

He couldn't even name the sound that escaped from his throat. And then she spoke the words, her voice a trembling mess, a ghost of the joy and laughter, the heat and fire he had been blessed to hear before, that placed the worst curse imaginable upon his soul.

"Goodbye Klaus. Forever and even after that."

His hands fumbled, his body falling forwards as he rushed to try and keep her, to grab ahold of her legs and clutch her to him like a child, to beg and plead with her to stay.

 _Let me fix this Caroline. Please my love! Please. Don't. Leave. I'm yours until the end of time. Always and forever. Please…_

But he missed. His face falling flat to the ground. His upper body outside the house, laying where she had last stood, his legs curling into himself as he rolled to his side. Those words never left his lips. Only bellows of the greatest, most intense agony he had every felt leaving him in broken sobs.

 _Some things cannot be fixed._

Her word came back to haunt him. The whisper of them and all that he had destroyed between them.

 _Friends, then?_

 _Friendship 101: Show me that I can trust you._

She could not. He had lied to her. Lied to her by withholding the truth. If only he had told her everything that day in the woods. If only he had opened up to her. She would have listened, she would have understood. He knew that. He had _known_ that. For she was Caroline. Caroline, loyal, trusting, loving, honorable Caroline.

And he had soiled it all.

Mikael's fists.

Mikael's whips.

Tatia's betrayal.

Henrik's death.

Finding out his true parentage.

His Mother's betrayal.

Killing his own Mother.

The Hunter's curse.

Friends and family stabbing him in the back, leaving him alone time and time again.

None of that, _all_ of that, had _nothing_ on this.

For even though he was in love with her, even though _she_ had been in love with him, it was not enough. Never even close to enough.

He wasn't aware that the room had emptied, wasn't aware that he had sobbed and scream until his throat bled and healed only to bled again. Wasn't aware of his siblings' concern, of Rebekah's arms wrapped around him, of Elijah placing his head upon his lap, stroking his hair as he once did oh so long ago after every whipping and beating.

He was only aware of the pain. The pain he caused. The pain he deserved for daring to dream. Daring to dream that a woman such as her could survive a man such as he. Daring to hope that he could be enough, even though he knew better. Daring to think that he loved her enough to never hurt her as he so violently had.

 _He's your first love. I intend to be your last._

Even though he loved her, he still broke her.

XXX

He didn't recall how much time had passed. Hours, days, weeks? It didn't matter now, and it hadn't mattered then. But the conversation of those around him finally slid through his ears, waking up his brain.

"… _looked no better than him. It was hours before something seemed to snap within her. Drove like a bat out of hell, it was almost difficult for me to follow her, but tasty little things can never out run me."_

" _Kol," The exasperation had rung clear in Elijah's tone, "Now is not the time for your wit."_

 _A muffled forlorn sigh crackled oddly. Elijah was on the phone with Kol, Klaus's pounding head had pieced together._

" _I know. I know." Kol cleared his throat gruffly, as if he too knew the effects of the ache and devastation. "She stopped at an airport. Compelling anyone who sought to interrupt her manic searching of the flights away. I stayed far enough away that she couldn't tell I was there, but close enough to see what she was searching for." Another sigh crackled through the line. "It didn't make sense at first. Until I remembered something she had said back at the house."_

 _Don't say it! Don't! Please brother! His mind had screamed._

" _She was searching the manifest for flights to Rome, Paris and Tokyo."_

 _Agony ripped through him sharper than if his every bone was breaking. But still, even through the suffering, his ears strained to catch just where his lost love had gone._

"… _scheduled to leave in four and five hours from now. She took the longer of the flights, even with the layovers. I think she chose it because it was the soonest to depart. Like she couldn't get out of here fast enough yet still was determined to stay her course."_

" _I agree." Elijah had sighed heavily. "Ready the jet and have the pilot on standby to secure a flight plan to Tokyo. I'm sure if…_ when _Niklaus comes to, he would like the option to follow after her."_

" _Do you think he will?" Rebekah's whispering words had floated over him._

" _I don't know sister. I don't know. I had thought I knew a great many things about our brother, but I find myself at a complete loss after what we bared witness to."_

Klaus had come too shortly after and had in fact gone after her. Was following her still. Even with Elijah's worried glances, Kol's desolate demeanor and Rebekah's fretting that he needed to be with family, he had gone alone. Allowing them to only see him to the airport. As at the time all his power, all his strength, even his immortality could not help him function.

He had taken nothing from home. Simply went through the motions of showering and changing before his pale face and husky broken voice demanded they take him to the jet.

He first found her at the base of the Tokyo Skytree, staring up at the more than fourteen-thousand-foot-tall skyscraper. He had studied her face, hoping to see the awe he had known should be there at such a wonderous sight.

But there had been none. Only a passing respect for such a wondrous structure.

He had watched from a distance as she rode the lift to the upper deck, wondered if she enjoyed the breathtaking view of the city from the towering heights. He had wished he could have been standing next to her, taking in her expressions. But such a privilege was barred from him and would not be welcomed, so on the ground he stayed.

He trailed far behind her as she wandered through the cherry-trees of Ueno Park, tasted the food and culture of the busy streets, as she mingled with the people of the downtown night scene. Never truly a part of any of it, her paler than normal skin, her curled to perfection hair duller, her blue eyes lost and haunted.

Every night she cried herself to sleep. Her anguish adding the only color to her cheeks as he watched her like a stalker from the balcony window.

It cut him like tiny shards of glass with each and every cry. Even though he knew he should leave, he stayed. Wishing, hoping for things that would never be the same, that would never come to be.

She left Tokyo after only three days.

His best guess as if why, not that he could claim to know her any longer, was that the richness of the colorful surroundings was too bright even for her. That had been his best guess since it was for him.

Rome was next on her list, though why she had skipped Paris when it was the soonest of the two flights had escaped him.

Until he had saw the brochure she had crumpled and tossed in the trash. Reaching in to smooth out the wrinkles before he paled and tossed it back in as if it had burnt him. Bright cheery letters proclaiming; _Paris:_ _The city of Light and Love awaits for you!_

He had still felt the fire as he boarded his private jet.

In Rome she had rented a room in the heart of the bustling city. He rented the two rooms to her left, as he had done in Tokyo as well, taking the furthest one from her to mask his presence while still being near enough to see her.

She had taken in the sights and soaked in the history. Still he had followed her. It was his punishment, his due for daring to hurt one such as she. To always follow, to be close at hand but never to touch. Sometimes he thought she knew he was there, but maybe that was just his wishful thinking. He liked to think, since he had become such a masochist, that when she whispered his name between her cries in the dark of night, that she was sharing her pain with him, merging their agony together as one.

Her smile was dim, her eyes a lackluster imitation of what they once were as she took in the temples, the Colosseum.

 _Your fault!_

One evening in Rome she had stomped back to her rented room, fury and rage radiating off her in waves. An hour later she emerged, curls shining in all their glory down her back, the short red dress clinging to her breasts and waist, her cheeks a matching flush that had him gulping in arousal and doom.

He had followed on shaking limbs as she immersed herself in the center of the dance floor of a local nightclub. The music thumping as she swayed and dipped to the beat. And like the siren she was, calling and drawing a flock of males to her side.

The glass that had been in his hand shattered as his iron will held him in place, the call was _not_ for _him._ And he had had a sinking suspicion of what would transpire next.

He was not wrong.

She had chosen a man that was as far away from his own looks and charms as she could find. Dragging the lucky bastard to the alley on the side of the club.

He tried to stop himself, tried to not follow after them. But the whispered urgings and the burning curiosity had been too much to bare.

Hidden deep within the shadows he had watched as the soon to be dead man petted and pawed at her with his disgusting lips upon her neck. The man was saved, for a little longer, when Caroline stopped him seconds before his lips attempted to fuse with hers.

Her shaking hand had covered her lips, her curls bouncing as she shook her head in denial, her gagging moans had echoed off the brick walls as her heels rapidly tapped with the quickness of her fleeing.

He had wanted to follow after her, nearly had, until the wretch had scoffed the word, _bitch_ , had fury had overtook him. This man had been graced with the chance to hold what Klaus himself could only dream of touching once again and yet he dared to defile her very character?!

Once the body was drained and mutilated beyond repair, he had left the dried husk on the dirty ground, opting to head back to his room for a shower before he checked in, _spied on_ , Caroline.

Oh, that he had not waited.

For when he arrived silently on her terrace he was shocked to find that the room was emptied. The only things that remained to even hint that her presence had been there was the table filled with the gifts he had been sending her.

At first when he had begun, she would find new and inventive ways to destroy them. The flowers he sent, cut up and tossed in the trash. Drawings crumbled, the envelopes never even opened.

Apparently, her efforts to demolish his gifts had proven to be too much. There they sat, left behind in the empty hotel room, a statement of how empty and hollow she found them to be. Of how she found _him_ to be.

His fretting over her abrupt departure slowly died from the soul deep anxiety to a mild burn. He had not lost her, not yet. For he knew where she would be heading next.

 _Paris._

But as he boarded his plane his anxiety reached new unfathomable heights.

Caroline was strong, Caroline was determined. What she had failed at that night had sent her running. But, as he very well knew, Caroline _never_ ran from a challenge.

His breath had rushed in and out of his stinging lungs.

 _Paris. The city of Light and Love._

What better way to prove to him as well as herself that she was over him than to go to the one place built of love and take another man to her bed?

XXX

She had been crafty this time. It had taken him nearly a week to find where she was staying. Another few hours still to track her down.

Once he had, he nearly wished that he had not found her at all. Her back pressed against a railing of the upper floor of a club, a dark haired man's hands slithering over her curves.

Again she stopped it before he kissed her.

This time the disgusting flop had saved himself, he smiled and sighed wistfully as she ran away.

He watched in rage and despair as night after night she attempted to take a lover again and again. But never quite able to follow through. Even though he wanted her for himself, he also wanted her to be happy and heal. As much as it slaughtered him to even think it, if taking another into her body was what she needed then he could not fault her for that.

At least that's what he tried to believe. Until the following night.

He watched her take in the sights in the light of day once again. Following dutifully behind her, safely and undetected. The sun was just beginning to dip below the horizon when he watched her pull a folded sheet of paper from her purse, clutching it close to her chest before letting it fall from her fingers as she walked away.

His curiosity had gotten the better of him. He waited until she was just out of sight before flashing to the paper, scooping it up in his trembling hands. Unfolding it to discover the drawing he had not known she had kept from the night of the Ball, tear stained and worn as it was, left on the ground next to the Eiffel Tower.

XXX

Klaus wandered aimlessly, not following her for the first time in weeks. A few hours later and he found himself back at the hotel. He could have gone after her, but his heart couldn't take watching yet another man's hands fondle and touch what he wanted for his very own.

He made it to the lobby just in time, for better or worse, to see the elevator doors slowly close, shielding Caroline and man, a man who was wrapped tightly around her, from view.

Bile reaching, biting his throat as he realized she was finally brave enough to bring one back to her room. Even worse still, this man was different, unlike the others looked who had looked almost eerily similar and the complete opposite than him. This man who was right now holding and touching her as they rode up the lift had sandy blond curl, a lean yet muscled stature, thin yet welcoming lips, a grayish tint to his blue eyes. And if Klaus's mind was correct while it ran over the details as he took to the stairs in a rush, the hint of a British accent could be found layered within the man's groan.

Klaus made it to his room, out the open window and jumped silently to a darkened corner of her terrace.

His ears picking out the sounds of her giggles, the gruff answering chuckle, the door creaking open and slamming closed. The rest of the sounds nearly killed him.

Fabric hitting the floor, lips smacking and tasting. A masculine moan. A, he tilted his head as he questioned, possibly forced feminine sigh.

Bile choked him.

He knew her sighs of enjoyment, of rapture when she was touched and caressed. That she was now forcing herself to go through with this, even though she clearly did not want to, just to prove something to herself and to him. It made him sick. Made him want to beg her to stop. To not do anything she would regret just to spite him. He was not worth it. Not worth soiling herself over.

The long, slow pull of a zipper sliced through the air making his ears bleed. The very length of the one he knew rested in the center of the back of her dress.

He should leave. He knows he should leave. But the torture of it all reminds him of how he had once, for the briefest of times, even though he had not known it, _he had had her love._

Part of him thinks that if he can know for sure that she will follow through this night then maybe, just _maybe_ , it can put them back on track. Track to what, he does not know. He only knows that they need to find a way to move forward. He needs _her_ to begin to heal. He needs that as much as he needs blood to survive just so he can rest his head at night and know that maybe, someday, he might just be able to have her again. It's wishful thinking, hopeless thinking on his part but still, _what is life without an impossible dream?_

"I'm sorry. I can't do this anymore. You need to leave."

At first Klaus thought she has found him out, only to then feel the relief that should not be allowed to flow through his body as her whispered plea is not for him, but for the man who hasn't even made it to her rented bed.

The man didn't even put up a fight. Just a swish of fabric and the closing of the door followed her denial leading Klaus to believe that she had compelled him to go.

Klaus sank and slid down against the wall of the terrace, his body running hot and cold with the riot of emotions running amok through him.

The shower turned on and off, a rustling of clothes and bedding is heard before he finally regains a small semblance of control. Readying to head back to his own room for the night.

"Klaus."

His eyes fall closed at the sound of his name falling from her petal soft lips. He tried to ignore the telltale signs of her tears she must have shed within the shower. His mind floats through the imaginative dream that she knows he is there, is calling him to her. Touching, holding, comforting each other in a sweet embrace.

"Please Klaus. Just come in."

His eyes fly open. In his mind's eye she would speak in nothing but husky, loving tones. Her pleading, rough voice could only mean one thing. She knew he was here. Was actually calling him to her.

Klaus treads slowly through the door of the terrace. He can smell faint hints of the man's lingering arousal as he walks into the main room. _Bile rising_. But not even a tiny whiff of her honey sweet scent can be found. _Body calming_.

Pausing before her open bedroom door he gulps. His heart racing, wondering why she had called to him. Why she had invited him in.

The sight he finds when he enters is a crushing blow. Hair still damp from her shower, her slight frame cocooned within the blankets. Her eyes welling with tears as a flurry of emotions roll though them; pain, sorrow, embarrassment, a slight flicker of hope that he doesn't fully understand, and her lips quivering the closer he comes. He bites the inside of his cheek in a failed effort to stop his own from doing the same.

He doesn't speak, neither does she, and yet just standing before her and watching as a tear spills over her lid and down her cheek is enough to knock him down.

His knees hit the floor, his arms traitorously sliding across the mattress, wishing to touch her but stopping just short of her now trembling body.

Their eyes never leave the other's, even though the tears continue to fall.

He watches in awe as her features shift slightly, hesitantly. Her hand and then her arm pushing the blanket loose before offering him her hand like a lifeline. A lifeline that he latched onto, clutching it delicately between his own, lips brushing over each finger with worshiping devotion.

Her hand pulls, he panics thinking she means to take such honor away from him once more, to leave him battered and broken after such a small yet massive gesture.

Astonishment and wonder cloud is heart and soul when he realizes that she is not pulling away but pulling _him_ in closer.

His body has a will all its own, frantic in its need to be near her, to make things right. The blanket is thrown from her body right before he allows himself to fall upon her abdomen, arms reaching around her to keep her near him. He can feel and hear her sharp intake of breath, the fear skyrocketing through him that she would lower her arms and shove him away.

This night was full of wishful dreams it would seem.

For her arms did the opposite. Tentatively they lowered, one draping over his shoulders, the other sifting trembling fingers through his hair.

A sob choked his throat. A tremor wracked his frame. His face pressed against her flat belly as he whispered brokenly, "I wish it was you. I wish it had been you. Why couldn't it have been _you_?"

His meaning, his deepest fantasy whispered brokenly in the dark of her bed must have come across to her. In the next moment she squirmed, arms and hands shifting from soft touches to hard shoves.

"No!" He groaned, holding her tighter, pressing and willing his body deeper into hers. Wishing and hoping to fuse them together so tightly she could never leave him or cast him away. " _Please._ "

His broken plea gave her pause. Her struggling stopped, and she gave into the need to cradle his body to her. Which only served to up his anguish more.

His body trembled, the bed shaking under the force of his sobs. He worried he would hurt her, that his uncontrollable, riotous emotions would sicken her. His face turned, enjoying the feel of her skin as her shirt rode up her stomach. Gazing up at her, tearful face meeting tearful face, he found pain and sorrow. But mixed in with that there was no disgust. No. Instead he found things he had only dreamed of finding there again.

Hope. Understanding. Confusion. Even the start of a softer emotion he dared not name for if he was wrong he would rather die by her very hands.

They stared at each other. Tears still falling slowly and unchecked, but their trembling had tapered to an end leaving an oddly comforting calm in its wake.

His palms and fingers moved in tiny circles over the silky skin of her outer thighs, her hips, her sides. Hers softly, gently skating up and down his shirt covered back, over his neck and through his hair.

He gasped at the first hint of need and want and heat creeping into her eyes. Groaned as the hint of her honey sweet scent, that only poured off her when she was aroused, filled his nostrils.

Her heart began to pound to the same note as his. Her beautiful lips falling open with a sharp gasp as he turned his head, eyes never leaving hers as he licked his lips before placing a single soft kiss near her navel.

She didn't utter a word, nor did she have to, as her hands gripped his shirt, pulling him up. Her body rolling to fully lay on her back, her legs widening to cradle his body as he fell gently on top of her. They both sighed, shivering as the cold that haunted them for weeks fled their bodies leaving only the heat of the other behind.

His forearms rested beside her head, fingers brushing over her face and hair. His eyes wide as she traced her hands up his chest, over his shoulders, to the back of his head to slowly bring him down closer, closer.

Their eyes locked together, shaky breaths mingling as their trembling lips met in a soft tentative touch. Gasps leaving the both at that first meeting of lips. Sighs at the second. Low moans as their tongues brushed and began to roll and dance.

Hands clutched, hips rolled and dipped. Fingers dug and soothed. The heat and fire between them consumed them both. Frantically they both rushed, ripping and tear the clothes that barred them from full skin to skin contact.

Both groaned as their bodies met, heated skin to heated skin, softness to harness. The frantic pace that had their clothing shredded and forgotten to the floor left as quickly as it came.

Slow thrusts, lazily drifting hands and intertwining bodies, hearts beating in sync to a pleasure and rhythm only ever found when they were together.

This was not about completion, not about the pleasure. This was about emotions and healing. Easing the suffering placed upon their shoulders by merging themselves as close as they could get.

Their eyes never left the other's as their bodies swayed slowly and firmly. Both feeling the humming force of the passion between them. Rising, lifting until with a keening cry and a hoarse grunt, it washed over them from head to toe. Lifting their hearts and souls to heights unknown. Leaving behind a sense of belonging, a sense of peace neither had ever thought to feel again.

His arms were shaking, ready to give out at any second, and even though he loathed to be apart from her, Klaus worried he'd crush her under his weight.

Gently as he was able to, he slowly pulled away from her, rolling to his back and pulling her with him, tucking her tenderly against his side.

Still they did not speak.

Klaus allowed himself the moment to revel and bask in her presence. Tracing the soft line of her spine until he felt her body relax into the arms of Morpheus. He tenderly kissed the top of her head, taking in the wonderous glory of being the one to give her the rest she desperately needed for the first time in weeks. He carefully pulled the blankets around them then placed his hand atop of hers that rested over his hopeful heart and allowed himself to do the same.

XXX

Klaus awoke slowly the following morning. A smile gracing his lips, his eyes still closed, as he replayed the events of the past night. His arm stretched out, searching the bed for Caroline. His eyes flying open when he encountered only cold sheets.

Jumping from the bed he glanced around in a panic finding no signs of her in the bedroom. Even though her things were still scattered around the room it did little to quiet his frantic fear that she had left him. Things could be replaced after all. And as this was the last stop on the list he had promised her, she could flee to places where he wouldn't even know where to look.

His eyes latched on the large masculine robe that was draped over the foot of the bed. Bypassing his tattered clothing, he snatched it up, quickly wrapping it around his vibrating frame and rushed out of the bedroom, fully intending on searching the world for her in a damned hotel robe if that's what it took to lessen her head start.

"What happened?"

Caroline's sweet voice surrounded him. Freezing him in place in front of the terrace door.

Spinning in shock he faced her, taking in the details he failed to pick up on in his terror of losing her and determination to find her.

She sat at a small breakfast table wearing a robe smaller yet similar to his own. An empty and inviting chair sat across the food laden table from where she was perched. The aroma of fresh coffee and Caroline filled his nose as he walked, first with stilted steps, then with purpose as he crossed the room to sit in the chair she had obviously left pulled out for him.

Klaus ran his tongue over his lips, his eyes searching her face for any clues as to what she was thinking before he sighed and admitted, "I thought you had left."

She hummed thoughtful as she took a dollop of jam from one of the many colorful jars, spreading it over the breakfast pastry on her plate. "I thought about it." She stated as a simple fact. As if it did not have the power to cut him open and bleed him dry.

Klaus opened his mouth, wanting nothing more than to ask her what had changed her mind but not able to work up the courage to do so. Thankfully she took pity on him and furthered her explanation.

"I must have picked up my phone a hundred times. Tried to pack my things a hundred more. But I could never make it past putting this damn robe on." She huffed with a shake of her head, "Do you want to know what stopped me?"

Her vivid blue eyes, filled with a delightful teasing even as her lips curving in a perturbed frown, stole his breath as they gazed at him. Reminding him of days from their past. He could do little more than nod his head.

"You."

He frowned, knowing damn well if he had awakened to her leaving he would remember. He would remember his arms around her legs, forcing her to drag him along. His pleas of denial that would have undoubtedly left his lips. He would have woken up this morning drenched in sorrow at losing her again instead of the cloud of calmness and rightness the night prior had placed upon him.

"I don't understand."

Caroline scoffed, "Of course you don't. You with your stupid face, your stupid happily peaceful smile while you slept and your stupid boyish charm. I _tried_ to leave. I _wanted_ to leave. But one look at you sleeping in my bed with your arms out like you wanted nothing more than to hold me in your sleep and I was stuck."

She ended with an adorable huff, folding her arms over her chest with a pout making him chuckle.

"What's so funny?" She growled at him.

"You're adorable when you pout, Caroline."

"Oh, shut up." She scoffed with a roll of her eyes.

He smiled at her fire, at how the easily they fell back into their old bantering pattern even though there were still mountains of issues between them.

Her face fell, her forehead creasing as her mind whirled with thoughts he wished he could know.

"What is it, love?" He asked carefully.

"I really thought I could do it. I tried over and over again to sleep with someone else. To even some score I thought you'd racked up against me." She laughed humorlessly. "But there never was any score to settle was there? It's not like we were dating. It's not like when you slept with…her…I wasn't dating Tyler."

"True. But I should have told you."

"When exactly? When exactly would you have told me?" She argued back against his understanding tone, "Were you just going to drop that bomb when I was looking for Matt? After I kissed you? After we got dressed after knocking down a few trees? You were just going to say, _That was fun Caroline. Look me up when you'd like to have at it again. And oh, by the way love, I have a baby on the way, bye now._ "

Klaus chuckled at her poorly made impression of him before admitting, "No, you're correct. Those would not have been the most constructive moments. But, if I was any stronger of a man where you are concerned, I would have stopped us at that first tree and sat you done to explain everything."

Her body was bathed in the sunlight pouring in through the window, her eyes glittering, beseeching him to try and explain now. To try and help close the gap that still remained.

Klaus ran a hand through his tangled hair, "Where to even begin." He muttered quietly before sighing as Caroline folded her hands on her lap, waiting for him to try, "Somehow an easily forgettable night, brought on by loneliness and alcohol, came back to haunt me the day I went to New Orleans after receiving a curious letter from Katerina, pointing me in that direction. I wanted nothing to do with the child or it's Mother. I only caved under Elijah's behest. And even still, with the threats to the child's life, even though there are moments that I enjoy the idea of being a Father, I find myself hoping that it will not come to pass."

Caroline opened her mouth to speak but snapped it shut as he didn't notice and continued to explain the happens of the New Orleans war. His guilt over his darker feelings towards his family and the child. What he had done, what was done to him. His confusion and feelings that maybe he only wanted what he had built decades ago because someone else had it now and had done it better. It wasn't until later, when he tapered off that he looked at her. Willing her to believe his words and honesty.

"As far as Camille is concerned, the woman you saw me with." Klaus sighed, "Yes, I enjoy her company. Yes, she holds some sort of torch for me. And I will admit that I sometimes use her feelings towards me to my own advantage. But each time that I do, I think of what you had said. About me and having friends. So, I tried, in my own twisted way, to build a friendship with her. But I swear to you Caroline, nothing has or ever will happen between her and I, and there have been no others since I was with you in the woods."

"I believe you." Caroline replied with a shuddering breath, "But even as hurt and angry and embarrassed as I was, we weren't dating. I don't have any claim of hold on you. So even if you did, there wasn't anything I could do about it. I started to realize over these past few weeks that I let my emotions get the better of me. I acted impulsive and rash, letting my hurt and jealousy control my actions, just like I used to do when I was human. I hated that part of myself. I vowed to never let that happen again after I was turned." Caroline smirked with a hint of remembrance and a hint of being upset with herself for what she had done, "I guess you were right, we really are the same, huh? Acting with our hurt first and regretting those actions later."

Klaus allowed himself to bask in her admission, her own twisted way of saying she had made some mistakes without actually saying she was wrong. They were more alike than he had even known back then.

Parts of her speech whispered through his mind, causing him to narrow his eyes at her in contemplation, "Whether we were dating or not, _I_ wasn't ready to be with another. Not after having you." He leaned forward in his chair, eyes pinning her so forcefully that she sucked in a deep breath and held it. "But there is something that you are completely and utterly wrong about, and I would have it out in the open now. You have more claim on me than anyone who has walked this Earth. Be it in the past or the future. Whether you want it or not, _you_ are _my_ last love. You are now, and always will be, the woman who owns my heart." His eyes hardened yet lit with a fire that swirled and danced through her lower body, "There is one other thing you are wrong about Caroline. No matter how I take you, no matter how you take me. Knocking down trees with the strength of our passions or a slow soft melding of our bodies, it will _always_ be something remarkable and memorable. _Never_ can it _ever_ be classified as something as distasteful as a mere _fucking_."

He let his words sink in but gave her little time to think it over before he attempted to move them onto something light. "This is quite the arrangement of foods and jams you have here, love."

"I didn't know what you would like. So, I ordered a little of everything." She squeaked, still caught up in the effects of what he had said.

The more time he spent in her presence, the longer they actually spoke, the more his senses and mind came flooding back to him. Easing some of the pain and fear from these last few weeks and filling him with the hope and determination to set them back on the track he felt they belonged.

Together. Always and forever.

She was here. She hadn't fled. Meaning she too had hopes that they could somehow muddle through all this together and come out on the other side all the better for it.

"I've always been a sucker for all things strawberry." He told her with a boyish grin. Watching in delight as she fixed him a plate filled with anything containing strawberries that she could find.

Both her hands held the plate out for him to take, a soft smile on her lips that nearly melted his mending heart.

Testing the waters, he slowly feathered his fingertips along hers before taking the plate with a husky murmur, "Thank you Caroline."

Her pupils dilated, and her breath hitched bringing a self-satisfied smirk to his lips.

She rolled her eyes, ducking her head to hide her grin as she busied herself with her own plate.

"You do make an excellent point though, love."

She pressed her lips together, tilting her head to the side with her brows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"Gods, you're absolutely adorable." He breathed aloud without his consent, bringing a blush to both their cheeks. Clearing his throat, he snapped himself back into focus. "There are many things we do not know about it each other." A travesty in his opinion and one he planned to rectify as soon as possible.

 _If_ she was agreeable.

"I see you have your, _I'm an evil mastermind and I'm devising my brilliant plan,_ face on." She batted her eyelashes with a cheeky grin. "See? I know things."

"Yes, you do." He conceded, "As do I. But still," His voice rumbled lowly, tongue curling over the words seductively, "I want it all."

Caroline inhaled sharply, hesitation clouding her features, "Klaus…"

"Here me out." Klaus reached across the table, placing his hand gently over hers, adding softly, "Please."

"Okay."

"I know we have much to discuss, much to weed through and discover about the other. And if you are amicable I'd like…" He cleared his throat, licking his lips and pulling all the strength from within he could muster to continue on, "I'd like us to start anew. To date, to move slowly or at whatever pace your heart desires. I'd like you to give us a real chance."

His eyes searched her face for any clues to what her mind and heart were thinking. Waiting for a single idea of which way she would lean, giving him time to decide what his next course of action would be.

He would _not_ be giving up on them.

"Okay." She said softly with a smile.

"Wh-what?"

"Okay. We will give this, give _us_ , a chance."

His eyes widened, his mouth fell open not believing what he was hearing. He had assumed, had been preparing to fight with every weapon in his arsenal to convince her to even think it over. Yet here she was agreeing without even a shred of doubt. An elated smile lit his face as she giggled.

"But now you have to leave."

His smile fell to a frown, "What do you mean I have to leave?" Panic rolled through him with the thought that, even though she looked happy, she could be trying to hurt him. That she would take it all back and laugh in the face of his agony.

"We both really have a lot of ground to cover on the trust-front, don't we?" Caroline stood and moved to stand beside him, her hand cupping the side of his face as she explained in a gentle tone, "If we are going to do this, we do this right. We have a lot to talk over Klaus, a lot to figure out. Years of trauma and insecurities for us both. You have things you'll have to come to terms with towards with me, just like I have things I'll have the same with you. We have all the outside influences that we will have to deal with at some point, but here's a news flash." Her voice became even more serious, "Relationship 101: _We_ need to build a foundation between just _us_ before we can move on to the icky-sticky stuff that others bring with them."

His hands drifted up the back of her thighs, yanking her in closer as he leaned up to press a kiss to her waiting lips. She melted within his arms as he gloried at being allowed to kiss her freely and as often as he'd like.

 _Relationship, she had said._

Caroline pressed a hand to his chest, pushing him back gently, her breath racing, "And there is reason number two of why you have to leave." She smiled as his eyes danced in awe over her flushed face, "I don't want to just fall in bed with you. Again anyways. Obviously last night was needed to get us back to normal again. I want to take this slow and build up to beds and knocking down trees." She smirked before sobering, admitting to him tenderly, "I don't want to treat this relationship, treat _you_ , the way I have all the others."

Klaus closed his eyes with a sigh as her fingers combed through his hair as he let his head fall against her stomach. She deemed their relationship, deemed _him_ , in a higher regard than anyone else. Wanted something entirely new when it came to him, to them.

Opening his eyes, he looked up to her, "You said reason number two, so what is reason number one if I may ask?"

Caroline beamed a smile at him as she pulled him from his chair. Leaving him to stand there as she flashed to grab his things before shoving him towards the door, "Reason number one is that _you_ have a lot of work ahead of you today. Planning the perfect date takes time and all. And _I_ have some shopping to do, alone, to get ready for said date."

Klaus grinned as she manhandled him to the door, sneakily placing his hand upon it to stop her from opening it further. Grinning mischievously as she glanced to him in question.

His other hand fiddled with the tie of her robe as he leaned down, running his nose and lips over the length of her neck, whispering roughly into her ear, "Are you sure you want me to go Caroline?"

"Yes?" She purred, the scent of honey swirling around them, much to his delight.

He scattered open mouthed kisses against her throat, "Even though once you open this door and I walk out of it, we won't know when we shall be ready for this again?" His hands dipped to grasp her hips, rubbing their aroused lower halves together.

Caroline melted against him with a moan. Before he was suddenly thrust out the door he didn't hear her open. Her cheeks were flushed, her chest heaved, her eyes glittered with arousal, her thighs clenched together, telling him that she wanted him as much as he did her.

"Even though." She spoke breathlessly before attempting to sound controlled, "I'll need until at least four o'clock so just text me what time to be ready once you decide what we are doing."

And with that the cheeky minx blew him a kiss and shut the door.

A couple passed by him in the hall, causing him to quickly cover his obvious erection that the robe no longer concealed with the tattered remains of his clothing.

He was dumbfounded to feel the heat of embarrassment color his cheeks as the couple snickered at the scene they had just witnessed as they rounded the corner. His eyes looked to Caroline's closed door, wanting nothing more than to break it down and toss her to her bed.

Yet he didn't. No matter how much he wanted to.

Because even though he knew the coming days, weeks and, _gods help him_ , possibly months would damn near kill him not to have her now that he has had a taste of her, he would do things right by her. Do things right by another person and for himself for the first time in his long existence.

XXX

Three months had passed since that night in Paris, and now Klaus held a naked and sweating Caroline close to his still trembling body as the gentle ocean breeze fluttered the curtains of the small house they were staying in on the secluded beach.

This was not the first, nor would it be the last, time they had been enjoying the afterglow of their love making.

They had lasted three weeks, four days and twenty-seven minutes. Not that he had been counting, but it was a cause of pride and strength that he had endured so long with her without ripping her clothes off and throwing her over his shoulder like some caveman. The little minx had loved to tease him, he recalled with a fond smile.

Things were moving along smoothly between them. They talked, they laughed. They shared things with the other that they never spoke of outside of their own minds. Their hopes, their dreams, everything they wanted out of life. Their fears and sorrows.

Nearly a month ago Klaus had received a phone call from Elijah, letting him know that under no uncertain terms, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the baby was in fact _not_ his. The witches, it was _always_ the witches, had used the girl and her unknown pregnancy against her. Planning to use the baby after it's birth as a vessel to resurrect some all-powerful ancestor and take down Marcel for good. They then in turn, in an effort to find someone strong and willing to protect the girl and her child, as well as stand up to Marcel, had tracked him down, wiped the girl's memories as well as his own and fabricated their entire affair.

The thought still made him want to tear through that blasted city, as well as Katerina- for who else helped to orchestrate the entire ordeal- killing them all. They had done well, he had begrudgingly admitted. Only touching that single night with false memories. Not wishing to chance making a mistake that could be found out.

Caroline, his sweet, adorably love. She had seen to him after the news had come in, worrying over whether he was alright with not becoming a Father as he had thought. Once she was assured he was fine, she flipped from soothing lover to vengeful goddess. Phoning Bonnie, who had warmed up to the idea of them the fastest. Klaus had a feeling it had more to do with the odd push and pull relationship between the young witch and his younger brother. After discussing what had transpired, Caroline grinned darkly as she hung up.

" _Those responsible will be lucky to even be able to float a feather ever again."_

The avenging angel had had her friend take and bind their powers. Blocking them from ever being able to reach out to their ancestors again.

Caroline stirred from her resting place against his chest, lifting to meet his lips. Humming contently after gaining what she was after as she collapsed back down.

Klaus chuckled, ruffling her hair before pulling her closer and whispering, "I love you."

"Mmmm." She tilted her head to peer up at him, "Even though we have to leave this little love nest later tonight to fly back to Mystic Falls for the very first official, meet and greet of your girlfriend's Mother who also happens to be a sheriff," Her eyes widened comically, "who _always_ keeps loaded guns in the house?"

"I'm sure you'll protect me." He tried to joke around the nerves that popped up every time he thought of the upcoming trip.

"Maybe I'll let her get a shot or two in first, you know, for old time sakes." She grinned as he tapped her in her nose before squealing as he flipped her over, growling at her playfully as he hovered above her.

She nibbled her lower lip, a habit that was often a tell that she was aroused or nervous. By the look in her eyes her nervousness was winning out.

"So even though my Mom might shoot you. Might even make you sleep out in my old rickety treehouse, you're still willing to go?"

"Yes Caroline. Even though." He assured her tenderly.

"Good. Even though she might hate you." She nodded before pulling his body fully into her own. Her lips kissing the sides of his neck as her legs wrapped around his waist. Her hips rolled as her legs pulled him down, sheathing his throbbing shaft into her warm silky depths as she whispered into his ear, "I love you."

* * *

Is it safe to come out after all that? I guess I will wait and see what the reviews tell me, come out and play or hide in fear of pitchforks and torches.

I'm not sure how this site will handle me updating twice on the same day. So if you missed them, don't forget to go back to Chapter 41 to read my other two stories, _All Things Mikaelson_ and directly after that, _Until Her_. (The stories are not related to each other. Both are Stand Alone drabbles.)

Also thank you all so much for the pouring in of reviews for those two stories and the fabulous welcome back! I will be responding to all your wonderful reviews later on today, so keep on eye on your inbox if you have or will be writing one!


	43. A Room Full of Memories

**A Room Full of Memories.**

Written for the Klaroline Vacay Gift Exchange for Joey-Prue

 **Synopsis:**

I'm taking total creative license with the happenings of Mystic Falls and New Orleans. Most things stay canon in Mystic Falls up to around The Travelers. All things Canon from TO besides what is listed.

No Hayley. No magical unicorn fetus. Cami is just some random bar tender who is not featured in this story because- seriously- that was just a sloppy story arch all together. The Mikaelson's went to NOLA because of whispers of an uprising there. They found out Marcel was alive, went through all the drama from the show, now they rule NOLA together- shakily- but Klaus is taking a page out of Caroline's Friendship 101 lecture and attempting to build bonds instead of forcing them.

Valerie, full of jealousy over Stefan and Caroline's deep friendship, (and ONLY a friendship), casts a curse on Caroline that no one knows the origins of. Bonnie was unable to help her as much as she tried. But she was able to reach out in the witchy realm and find the location of a witch that could. Once the girls saw that the witch's location was in NOLA, they knew that Klaus would be the one to go to.

 **Warning:** NSFW (At The End)

* * *

The front door crashed open, Marcel calling out for help as he half-dragged the stumbling blonde vampire into Compound.

She had shown up only twenty minutes ago, snapping the necks of two of his best guys who had her cornered. Then, right in front of his eyes, her strength seemed to fail her. Her body crumpling to the ground as he flashed towards her, readying his hands to snap her neck and cart her off to The Garden to question her after she came to. Only when she had weakly lifted her head, her strangely familiar features gave him pause.

When she rasped the name of his sire, the familiarity of her face clicked. His mind flashing to the drawing he had caught Klaus working on after he had returned from Mystic Falls a few years ago before he snapped the book closed.

Marcel pulled her up closer to him as the mysterious vampire began to falter once again, slowly getting weaker by the second.

"Klaus!"

"Really Marcel, I taught you better than to burst into someone's home shouting…" Klaus appeared at the second-floor balcony, his teasing grin falling from his face, "Caroline?"

At the sound of his voice Caroline used what little of her strength remained to push off Marcel, stumbling forward with his name whispering from her lips. Her legs quickly failed her, sending her crumbling to the floor. Marcel dashed towards her to save her from impact as Klaus flashed beside them.

Kneeling, Klaus took her gently from Marcel. His eyes filled with worry as he scanned her over, looking for what ailed her, hissing angrily to Marcel, "What did you do?"

Marcel stood, his hands held up in front of him, "I didn't do anything. I found her like this just outside of Rousseau's. She took out two daywalkers and then crumpled to the ground. All she kept saying was your name, so I brought her here."

Caroline weakly pulled on the front of Klaus's shirt, gaining his attention, "What happened Sweetheart? What's wrong with you?"

"Bonnie…Note." She groaned in pain as she tried to move her arm to reach into her back pocket.

"Relax, I'll get it." Klaus carefully pulled the folded paper from her pocket. His eyes scanning it over quickly before shoving it into his own pocket. Gently he searched her neck for the chain he knew he'd find there, pulling it out of her shirt to look at the amulet the Bennett witch had said would be there. The crystal infused with his blood was a murky grey, with only a small corner still holding the red color.

Scooping her up into his arms as he stood, he carried her up the iron staircase, "Call Freya and tell her to get here _now._ "

Flashing to his room, he gently placed Caroline to his bed with a weak playful grin, "This was not how I had envisioned finally getting you into me bed would come about."

Caroline's attempts at a scoff were little more than a ragged huff of air.

His eyes flicked to the amulet around her neck, the wheels of his mind turning. Bonnie had written that she had used the blood he had left Caroline in case of emergencies as a talisman, giving Caroline the strength she needed to make the journey here. The strength that was quickly fading from her.

Sitting to the bed, he bit into his wrist, ignoring her feeble protests as he carefully forced some of his blood into her mouth. For a single moment he felt hope rise within his chest as he watched the color return to her pale cheeks before dread speared him as she began to cough, the paleness returning with a vengeance.

Her dull eyes glanced up to him with pity, as if he was the one fighting to catch his breath and not her. As if she was attempting to offer him comfort.

"Tried that…doesn't work." She gasped haltingly, "Call Bonnie…she'll explain…"

The weakness of her voice bothered him more than it had when he had thought to let her die in the Gilbert living room. But now was not the time for that. He stuffed the thoughts of losing her down deep, instead attempting to offer her solace and hope, things he had very little experience of giving.

"Shh, save your strength Love. Bonnie's note was very thorough with explaining what she has found as of now and Freya is on her way as we speak." By her confused glance he smiled as he shifted closer to her, placing an arm across her stomach to lean in close while he smoothed the hair from her face, "We have much catching up to do Caroline. My long-lost sister Freya has returned to our mists and I am quite confident that she is the witch that your friend Bonnie believes can help you."

Gulping down as she struggled and gasped for breath again. Watching what little remained of his blood begin to fade from the talisman, Klaus leaned in closer his eyes soft yet unyielding as he vowed, "You can stop fighting now Caroline. I swear to you, you will not be under this curse for very long. I _will_ find a way to break it."

Caroline sank into the pillows, a soft smile gracing her lips as she weakly placed her hand over his that was cupping her cheek. Her lids slowly blinking shut, "I know."

Klaus swallowed harshly at her small yet powerful words, marveling at the faith and trust she was handing him without a second thought.

Freya watched from the door as her brother leaned down, placing a kiss to the blonde vampire's forehead, whispering, "I will not fail you Caroline. When you wake I will show you all the New Orleans has to offer." He pulled back with a small grin, "Though I believe it will be my fair city that will be brought to its knees and left in awe of you."

Freya was left breathless by the raw and pure emotions racing across her brother's face. In her time spent with him and of all the times over the years that she was allowed glimpses into her family's lives, she had never seen Klaus act this way with anyone before. No falsities, no games. Just very real and bright emotions for whoever this blonde vampire was.

Not wanting him to catch her as an interloper to this very private moment, she cleared her throat, "I talked to Marcel. You want to tell me what's going on?"

His face transformed back into his full-on take no prisoners mode she was used to, "I need a protection spell placed around my room and I need you to read this." He pulled the note from his pocket, thrusting it within her grasp, "And Freya? I expect results before the day is out."

XXX

A few hours later he listened to bits and pieces the frantic conversation between Freya and Bonnie as he wandered the halls.

" _I needed something strong to anchor the talisman with to give her enough time to reach New Orleans. We can't find Valerie, so we have no idea what curse she put on Caroline, but I was able to reach out to my Grams on the Ancestral Plain and get a little help with which direction to start looking."_

" _I've matched up some of the information you emailed me to possible curses and then cross-referenced them with ones typically performed with Travelers magic. I'll send you what I have but I'm not sure what we will be able to find without having the witch that made the curse."_

" _I got it." Bonnie's voice hummed through the speakerphone, "Did you notice how most of the Travelers curses have something to do with discovering or showing something? Maybe Care's trapped in some sort of vision?"_

 _Freya groaned in frustration, "This would be so much easier if we could somehow see inside her head. But I tried using magic to do that and all it did was short out the electric in the house and knock me flat on my ass."_

Klaus stopped dead in his tracks, the wheels in his mind turning faster and faster as he tuned out the rest of their conversation and focused on what they had just said. Deciding it was worth a try, he flashed off to his room where Caroline laid.

He crawled into the bed, laying on his side beside her, curious if his plan would work. Placing his hand against the side of her head he closed his eyes and tried to connect with her mind.

The air left his lungs as his mind's eye was transported into hers. It took a moment to mentally regained himself, finding that he now stood in the darkened backyard of Caroline's home. The only lights came from inside the house, the yard itself surrounded by a strange dark foggy mist. He took a step towards the house to begin his search of her there when a small voice from above him gave him pause.

"What are you doing here?"

Klaus looked up to find a wooden platform built within the tree, a young girl's head peering over the edge with her blonde curls falling around her face as her curious blue eyes followed his every move.

"Do you know who I am?" He cautiously asked this adorable younger version of her.

Her tiny voice filled with confidence as she nodded, bringing a soft smile to his face. "You're Klaus."

"Could you perhaps come down here so that we might talk Caroline?"

She grinned before disappearing from his view, her footsteps scampering above him, leading him to the ladder where she began her descent. Once she was on the ground, Klaus knelt down in front of her, marveling at this rare life-like glimpse at Caroline as a child.

"Do you know what is happening Sweetheart?" She nodded her head, "Good. That's good. Can you tell me?" She pressed her lips tightly, her eyes showing her sorrow as she grimly shook her head no, "That's alright. I understand far too well the tricks of a witch's curse. Perhaps we can discover a loophole together, hmm?"

Klaus took pride in the spark of excitement that lit her eyes, extinguishing all signs of her distress over not being able to tell him what he wished to know. "Perhaps you can tell me why you are outside and alone in the dark."

As if he words propelled things into action, shouting voices could be heard coming from the house. The young Caroline seemed to snap into action, darting past him into the house as if he was never there. Curiously he followed her as she kicked off her shoes by the backdoor, riffling through her school bag with her tongue tucked between her lips, her eyes lighting up with joy as she found what she had been looking for.

He followed her deeper into the house as she barreled into the room where the heated voices of her parents were coming from. Their argument tapering to silent angry glares as Caroline jumped between them, waving her treasure between them.

"Look what I did at school today! Mrs. Jewitt said it was the best art project she had ever seen!"

Klaus watched with a heavy heart as the scene unfolded before him. Her Father patted her head, without so much as a glance at her drawing, placating her as he grabbed his keys, heading for the front door with her Mother fast on his heels.

"Where are you going Bill? We're not finished yet."

The slam of the front door was the only answer. Liz huffed as she roughly pulled her jacket on over her police uniform as young Caroline, never one to give up, bounced to her Mother proudly holding up her drawing.

"Look Mommy!"

"Caroline, I don't have time for this. Just put it on the counter and I'll look at it when I get home."

"You always say that." Caroline's lips jutted out with the force of her pout.

Groaning as if put out, Liz snatched the paper from her daughter, hardly giving it a sideways glance as she muttered, "Looks nice." Before handing it back, "Lock the door behind me, dinner is in the fridge and make sure to get to bed at a decent hour."

The door closed behind her as she left her daughter, of no more than seven, alone in their home in the dark of night. He watched the heartbreaking scene play out, Caroline's tiny fists crumpled the drawing in her hand, tossing it to the floor as she ran to the door and locked it tight. Her tiny arms laced around her, rubbing frantically as her lip trembled and her eyes darted around the room with fear. As if the hounds of hell were snapping at her heels, she darted off to her bedroom, where she curled up in the center of her bed armed with a flashlight and her teddy bear clutched close to her chest. Her voice trembled as she tried to sound brave, "It's okay Mr. Bear, I…I will protect you." She flashed her light in all the corners of the room, "Only six hours until Mommy comes back home. Daddy might be home sooner and then everything will be okay." She turned her teddy bear to face her, "We can be brave till then, right?"

Though he hated to leave her, Klaus knew that there was nothing he could do for her while trapped inside her memories. Regretfully he pulled his hand from her head, severing the link to her mind and set off to tell Freya of what he had discovered hoping that this information would be what she would need.

XXX

Freya's excitement over all that he had told her was brought down by Bonnie's nagging worry over him seeing into Caroline's mind and her fears for what her friend was having to relive.

As much as he wanted to give Caroline her privacy, he was like a moth drawn to a flame. Using the excuse that he wanted to try to inform her only of their progress, however lame it sounded, as he once again laid beside her and placed his hand to her temple.

This time he was met with her younger self while she paced nervously in the hallway of her home.

"You came back." Her eyes rounded with shock.

"Of course, I did Sweetheart. I didn't wish to leave you alone and trapped her for long." He smiled charmingly before pulling back in shock as her eyes hardened.

"You shouldn't be here."

Before he could ask why, a loud crash followed by a scream echoed from the closed door of Caroline's bedroom, drawing his attention deeper down the hallway.

Her tiny fists and kicks that she swung in attempts to stop him were no match for him as he began the trek down the hall. He came to a pause outside her bedroom door, with Caroline's tiny hands tugging and pulling at his shirt. A sinister male laugh followed by yet another feminine scream and something hard hitting the wall flooded from behind the door.

Frantically Klaus tried to open the door, failing to cause it to budge no matter how hard he tried. "I need to get in. She needs my help! Let me in the room Caroline!"

"No!" The force of young Caroline's yell sent him flying away from the door, crashing against the opposite wall where he quickly jumped back to his feet. Her eye blazed with anger and panicked tears as she screamed, "This memory is not for you! You shouldn't be here! Get out! Get out! GET OUT!"

Klaus woke with a panicked gasp, sitting up on the bed as he stared down in horror at Caroline and the way the curse made it seem as if she were just peacefully sleeping. Now he knew the truth. This curse was putting her through its own little house of horrors show.

Try as he might, he could not regain entrance to her mind after that. It was as if, even under the curse as she was, she placed a mental barrier between them. Which only served to worry him further. Caroline was trapped alone, unable to escape her most painfilled memories. The last one that he bared witness to was enough to set his blood on fire and turn his lungs to ice. He had witness enough depraved acts throughout his years, had a heavy hand in many of them. But one that he had never done was the one that her screams of terror had eluded to. Someone had forced themselves on her in the most brutal way, and when he discovered just who it had been, he would destroy the wretch.

But in the meantime, he flashed off to the study where Freya had been working tirelessly. Screaming and shouting with his demands for answers.

"I don't know Klaus." Freya rubbed her forehead in exhaustion.

"What do you mean you don't know?! What use is all your power and knowledge if you cannot help me break one simple curse!"

"It's not as simple as you think or else I would have the answers by now."

"Well then, by all means please, finish your tea. Meanwhile Caroline lays trapped within her own mind. Haunted by images and memories no one should, let alone one such as her should ever be forced to endure!" Glass shattered to the ground as he viciously swiped the contents of a nearby table to the floor, "I can't even gain access to her mind any longer! I can't ease her discomfort even a small whit."

"I know you feel helpless, we all do, but other than my crazy sleep deprived idea, I'm not sure what else I can do for her right now."

"What idea?" Klaus spun on his heels.

"It's out there and dangerous, and it might not even work."

"Tell me." He flashed to her, his eyes glazed with a manic light.

"I might not know all the inner workings of this curse just yet, but I do know enough to place someone else under it." She swallowed nervously, "Maybe if I placed it on someone, I could link the two curses together and thereby giving Caroline and the other person access to each other while under its effects. That just might give us the loophole we need to figure out how to break this thing."

"Excellent. Gather your supplies and meet me in my room." Klaus announced before leaving the room.

Freya ran to the door, shouting after him, "I said a lot of maybes and might's Klaus! You can't seriously think that we should put this curse on you with only half the information we need. We don't even know for sure if this will work."

Klaus flashed back to her, gripping her shoulders tightly, "That's exactly what we are going to do. Now gather what you need, I'd have this done before our other siblings come back home and try and stop me. Rest assured sister, no one will like the consequences if they stand in my way."

Freya watched him as he stalked off towards his bedroom where Caroline still laid, a small smile growing over her lips as he was safely out of view. She could hardly contain her whistle as she gathered what she needed. She had figured out the curse and all it entailed hours ago, it wasn't until just now that she finally figured out how to get Klaus to willingly agree to be placed under the curse and linked with Caroline with nothing to go on but a small ounce of hope.

XXX

"Freya, what did you do? Why will Niklaus not awaken?"

She drew in a deep breath as Elijah and Rebekah come into the study, "I did what I had to do." Freya replied with her chin held high.

"Oh my God. You put Nik under the curse as well, didn't you? I glanced over your scribbles about the curse, but I never thought…" Rebekah fearful eyes stared at her sister.

"Klaus had to be willing to go under with no reservations." Freya defended.

"But now there is no way to try and connect with them. To help us find the loophole needed." Elijah scolded.

"Klaus _was_ the loophole. He loves her, and she loves him." Freya stressed.

"That's preposterous, Niklaus hardly knows the girl."

Rebekah glanced to him as if he were daft but as caught his bewildered eyes, she softened, "I forgot that you had disappeared during the Nik and Caroline Saga with all the wooing attempts, near deaths and last second rescues back in Mystic Falls. Though I do have to disagree with you as far as Caroline's feelings are concerned, Freya. She may have leveled a few trees with our dear brother, but that girl fights her connection with him with her every breath."

"Then why of all places she could go for help did she come here, to _him_?"

"I never said the twit was stupid. She very well knows the power behind the Mikaelson name." Rebekah scoffed haughtily.

"Maybe, but you didn't see them right before she fell under the effects of the curse. They hardly spoke more than a few words to each other, yet they seemed to be having some a long drawn out conversation just with their eyes."

"Ah yes, I remember all too well the days of all the eye-sex and flirty dance."

Elijah cleared his throat past the stun of all that he was hearing, that he had somehow missed, "What is to be done now? How do we help them?"

The trio looked into the room to the bed where the pair laid as if merely sleeping as Freya sighed, "There's nothing we can do. It's all up to them now."

XXX

" _Wake up Sweetheart."_

Caroline groaned groggily, opening her eyes only to squeeze them shut when she was met with a blinding white light. Her forehead crinkled as she took stock of her body that was being cradled across a warm lap with a scent that matched the soft cadence of his voice.

Slowly this time she opened her eyes, scanning the oddly bright white hallway filled with doors before looking up to see the relief in his gray eyes as he grinned down to her.

"As the design of the space we are in doesn't match up with your high and flaunty tastes and the fact that things still feel a little unusual, I'm going to have to ask. What has you grinning like a you found a new human doppelganger when the curse obviously isn't broken?"

"Can't a man just be happy to see you?"

Caroline slowly sat up and moved to stand above him, "No. Not when you're inside my head again while I'm still trapped in this creepy curse."

Klaus, as he always did with her, followed her lead and stood, "So you remember my visit during your cursed sleep?"

Caroline pressed her lips with a minor disturb, "I remember you talking to child me outside of my house and then again in the hallway outside of my room before you disappeared."

"Before you shoved me out of your mind to keep me from discovering things you wish to hide." His eyes narrowed, and she could hear the questions in his voice.

"Some things are best left buried Klaus." She shook her head at his lips pressed with upset, dislodging the images he wished to unravel with his blatant diversion, "I don't recall you being the object of distraction in this relationship."

His dimples cut his scruffy cheeks with the force of his wide, teasing grin, "A relationship? My, my, my. Who knew a simple curse would be all it took for you to finally name us as such."

"Stop twisting my words." Caroline shook a pointy finger at him, "This feels different than before. When you entered my head those other times I could tell you weren't part of the curse but a drifter inside my thoughts. This feels different. Now it's like you are your own separate entity from me and yet here we are," Caroline waved her hand around them, "In some creepily sterile looking hospital hallway filled with doors. Mind explaining to me what the hell is going on?"

By the tap of her toes reverberating against the walls he knew her patience was wearing thin. Rubbing the back of his neck with a small amount of discomfort he began to explain, "Freya was having a few minor difficulties with the inner workings of the spell. She had a highly involved hypothesis that if we were linked, we could decipher a way out of this curse together." Knowing she was always quick to piece things together, he squinted at her as her face evolved in an array of emotions while he awaited her reaction.

Caroline opened her mouth, snapping it closed, her eyes wincing at him as she held up a single digit before rubbing her forehead, "Are you telling me that you willingly put yourself under the same curse and linked yourself with me? Because that would be insane even for you. Please tell me that you seriously didn't do this because you are the one person I need on the outside to figure this damn thing out."

"We tried everything from the outside and it all failed." He defended with a scowl, "It was time to tackle things from within."

"Great!" Caroline tossed her hands into the air, "You decided to go all _insurgent_ and now who knows how long we could be trapped here together."

"Is my company really that bad?" Klaus pouted.

"Don't you dare! No puppy eyes are allowed from you. God Klaus! I came to you because I trusted you to fix this! Not get yourself trapped in the curse too." She groaned in frustration, tossing her head back as if the pure white ceiling held the answers for the clearly insane hybrids actions, "Why would you even do this?"

Klaus invaded her personal space, grasping her chin forcing her to look at him as his eyes blazed and his hand moved to warm the side of her neck, "I do not take for granted a single ounce of the trust you have placed within me. Do you really believe I would willing place myself under a curse without having the confidence that we could figure this out together? That I would ever place you under more harm?"

His words from that fateful night on Elena's darkened porched echoed in her mind. _It was all for you._ Her shoulders slumped as the fight and frustration that she shouldn't be aiming at him deflated out of her. She knew him better than she liked to admit, even to herself. Klaus Mikaelson would never had gone to such lengths if he didn't have a plan.

But right now, she had a slightly wounded and pouting hybrid in front of her to deal with, so they could get to that plan.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you but even you have to admit this all sounds straight out of the cuckoo's nest." His answering smile made her laugh under her breath, tilting her head with just enough sass, "Okay almighty one, what's that game plan then?"

Klaus took a moment to revel in her patented sassiness, and the little spark of joy that she had not removed his hand from her neck, before he regrettably stepped back, surveying their surroundings.

Caroline frowned as the skin of her neck felt oddly cold without the warmth of his touch, but she opted to push such thoughts aside, she was good at that when it came to him, as she too took in their new surroundings.

The hallway felt deceptively long. She almost though that it went on forever until she noticed the single beaten and battered red door at the end. Both sides of the hall were lined with white doors with goldened handles and letters on their fronts.

They pressed their lips tight with a grimace, eyes flicking to each other and back to the sets of doors as their minds rapidly deciphered what was expected of them both.

"I'm going to take a wild guess that the way out would be the big scary looking red door at the end of the hall." Caroline broke the daunting silence.

"We're of a like mind on that front, Love. But as the other doors carry our initials and we would have to pass them to get there, I would assume that we will not find the results of the big scary red door favorable until the others have been breached."

"And with this being a curse by some wack-a-do, I don't think we'll find any rainbows and bunnies behind the white doors either." Caroline thought of all the things her fake house liked to show her, finding herself increasingly upset that Klaus would possibly bare witness to things she'd rather he didn't see. It was with a plastered-on smile and fluttering eyes, she waved towards the first door with a golden N, "Since you've already taken a peek into my head, I think it's your turn to go."

Klaus grunted in response, he knew he couldn't argue with her logic nor could he ask her to kindly turn away when it was his idea to trap them here together in the first place. Gathering his strength, he blew out a breath as he felt Caroline step up beside him as he turned the handle and pushed the first door open.

A swirling dark mist greeted them, similar to the one that had surrounded her backyard. Slowly the mist faded to give way to a scene that was all too familiar to him.

Caroline gasped, leaning closer to get a better look, "Oh my God. Is that you?" Glancing up to Klaus's face finding a quiet look of dread on his features that didn't quite match up with the tender scene playing out before them.

"Yes." His steely eyes stayed locked on the images.

She looked back through the door as Klaus, looking to be around the tender age of six, had his tongue caught adorably between his lips as he carved a small knife around a tiny chunk of wood creating a miniature figure of an animal under the watchful praise of his Mother.

" _You are doing wonderfully Niklaus. Your baby sister will be very pleased."_

Young Klaus's cheeks puffed with pride, causing warmth to grow within Caroline's chest. The door at the front of the hut crashed open revealing a sneering Mikael that turned the warmth to ice.

" _Look Father! Look at the tiny beast I am carving for Rebekah."_

" _He truly is a marvel at his carvings."_ Esther beamed with pride with a cautious eye on her husband.

Mikael grunted gruffly, resting his sword against the wall, _"Perhaps if you stopped with the incessant coddling of the boy, he would be able to stomach carving the hides off the kills I bring home. Instead, he is inside carving useless toys while Elijah and Finn help to prepare our meal."_

" _He is just a child Mikael. Elijah and Finn were both two full seasons older than he before they began helping with such gory work."_

" _And yet he can waste away the time carving useless chunks of firewood as his brothers do all the manly chores. By damn! The boy will never become a man if he is left to play the hours away!"_ Mikael stomped over to the table, snatching the half-finished animal out of his son's hand, tossing it to the fire before grabbing him by the back of his neck and forcing the boy towards to door, _"If you can meticulously carve hunks of wood, then you can by damned carve strips of fur off meat."_ With a forceful shove, he pushed Klaus out of the door. _"And do not let me hear of you spilling the contents of your stomach into the bushes again like some weakling. If you cannot keep the food I bring to this table within your body, there shall be no dinner for you tonight boy."_

The mist swirled back in, giving the illusion that it was over before clearing and replaying the scene once again. With a face covered in rage, Klaus attempted to pull the door closed, not wishing to see the glimpse of his past again but even with his hybrid strength he was not able to pull it closed.

Snarling he let go of the handle, "Fine!"

"What? Why can't you close the door?"

No stranger to tricks of the witchy variety, he snapped, "It would appear that a condition of the curse is to face whatever it is that the doors displays to us. Blasted witches and their damned tricks!"

Caroline turned her back on the repeating scene, focusing her attention instead on Klaus. Placing her hand to his tense forearm with a soft touch and an even soft voice, "What do you need to face here, Klaus?"

Klaus focused on her expressive blue eyes, using them as an anchor as he recounted his old buried memories, "This was the first moment that I realized that I might never live up to my Father's expectations. The first time that my doubts began to creep in to lay its very real seeds that I might never be capable of gaining his praise."

"But you were so young." Caroline spoke with a frown.

Klaus smiled at her innocence, "Younger than the girl who only wished for her parents to praise her pretty picture or to stay with her throughout the night to keep the monsters at bay?"

"No, I guess not. So, what happened after that? Did you skin the animals and cut the meat?"

"Not without some difficulty but yes."

"Huh. It looks like we both learned how to push ourselves into doing things we didn't like to do just to try and make our parents proud of us."

"So it would seem." Klaus relaxed under her understanding gaze, his eyes flicking over her shoulder with a soft grin, "It worked."

Caroline turned, surprised to see the door had completely vanished leaving behind nothing but a smooth white wall. Nervously she faced her side of the hall, whispering, "I guess that means it's my turn then." Inhaling deeply, she squared her shoulders and bravely marched to the first door with the golden scripted C and hastily flung it open.

The dark mist faded away to reveal a scene from her life that already caused her lower lip to tremble.

Klaus watched as the familiar image of a young Caroline, who looked to be the same age he had saw her as before, wrench her arm out of her Mother's grasp and stumble down the steps of her front porch.

" _Daddy! Daddy no! Please!"_ Tears streamed down her reddened cheeks as she chased after her Father and grasped onto the strap of his suitcase.

Her Father sighed, looking to her Mother who stood with her arms cross at the front doorway for support with their daughter. Finding none there he knelt down beside her, _"Caroline, I have to go now. We talked about this. We agreed this was all for the best."_

" _No. No. No! You and Mommy talked, not me! Please don't leave me Daddy."_ She choked on the force of her tears as he wrangled the suitcase from her and placed it in the backseat of his car with his other belongings.

" _I need to go now Caroline. I'll call you when I get there."_

She flung her tiny body against him, wrapping herself around his leg squeezing tightly, _"Take me with you then. I'll go pack a bag and we can leave together."_

" _You know I can't do that. We talked about this, you have school and all your friends."_

" _Then why can't Steven move here with you so you can stay with me?"_

" _Because his daughter has her schooling and friends too. Now come along, how about I'll stay for a little longer and we can work on your puzzle before I leave."_

" _No!"_ Caroline stubbornly let go of her Father, clenching her tiny fists at her side as her tears melted into anger, _"Go ahead and leave then! Go ahead and play puzzle with Steven's daughter who you want more than me! See if I care!"_

With a shift kick to his shin, she raced towards the house where her Mother knelt down to take her within her arms. Caroline skidded to a stop, turning her anger to her, _"I don't need you either! This is all your fault! Daddy wouldn't be leaving me if you could just be nicer to him! I hate you both and…and…I hope you eat bugs in your sleep!"_

As the mist began trickling back in, Klaus turned his back to the door and was met with the heartbreaking sight of Caroline's tearful eyes as she held her arms wrapped around her middle.

Slowly he approached her, gently taking her within the safety of his arms as she cried. Laying the side of her face against his strong chest, she gathered herself and began to explain.

"I locked myself in my room for three days after that. I wouldn't come to the phone when he called or even answer my Mom when she came to my door. I snuck out to get food but hurried back in before she could catch me. I couldn't face either one of them because I hated myself for the things I said to them. But the truth is, I hated myself even more because I felt like it was my fault."

Her glistening eyes held him captive, his hand cupped the side of her face as his thumb brushed the tears from under her eye, "The breakdown of your parent's marriage was not your fault Caroline, no matter how much it might have felt that way at the time."

"But it was. I heard my Mom on the phone with my Dad a few days after that happened. When I finally decided to come out and apologize." She carelessly tossed her hand towards the door. "She told him that they needed to figure out how to help me get through their divorce. That they needed to work together since I was the only reason they had stayed together as long as they did. So, don't you see Klaus? If I had never been born, they would have had the chance at a normal happy life."

"You're wrong Caroline." He uttered softly, "Even if they had a terrible way of showing it, your parents loved you. They loved you enough to try and make their marriage work just to give you a happy life. And when they deemed it to be hurting you more than helping, they did what was best for all of you. Besides, didn't things between you and your parents improve over the years?"

"Yeah I guess. It wasn't easy, but I'd like to think we were all in a good place before they died."

"Most things, especially the things that matter most to us rarely are easy. But you know that they died loving you in the end and that is all that should matter. Everything else that happened is merely another stepping stone to craft you into the woman you are today."

Caroline frowned, "I guess I never thought of it like that." She lifted an eyebrow as the door disappeared, "Looks like it's time to see what else crafted you into being who you are."

Klaus scowled at the next door but didn't waste any time as he marched to the next door, flinging it open.

He grimaced at his human self standing under the nearly full moon with Tatia, by the look on his human face and the pouting lips on hers, he knew very well what was about to happen.

" _Do not do this to me Niklaus. How can I choose between you? You, my sweet and tender man, who walks me through meadows simply holding my hand. Who whispers words of love and of a future that fills me with hope yet sadness. You touch my heart in ways that I cannot explain as you tell me stories and hold me close as the stars shining above us. And yet, while the attraction is there, the burning passion is not. Not like it is between with Elijah. Elijah who is brutal in the most wonderous ways with his love for me. You seek to comfort and hold me, to treat me as some fragile flower, while he seeks to consume me, to challenge me to yearn for the burning. You cannot ask this of me Niklaus, for my answer will remain the same. I want you both. I need you both. For if I could meld you into one man, much like the smithy with his metals to swords, I could then form the perfect man of my choosing, one who burns me from the inside out yet keeps me safe from his fiery love." Tatia choked on her tears, "I love you both the same yet for different purposes. I am sorry. I must go…I cannot…"_

With that she turned to stumble away, leaving Klaus to his misery.

Caroline scoffed, "What a load of shit."

"Pardon?" Klaus asked surprised.

"Outside of the fact that that was entirely too creepy, she may have been a different person, but I _know_ Elena's face and that was _so not_ her I'm-so-devastated-I-can't-help-but-cry face."

Klaus pressed his lips, squinting his eyes towards Tatia as glanced over her shoulder to his human self before she ran off. Having this memory replay before him now he could clearly see what Caroline had picked up on, what his frail human mind with it's heart breaking into tatters had missed. That moment had been the beginning of his heart changing and hardening, the first step to making him who he had become; a monster who did not care and did not love.

As if the door into his past heard and felt the trail his thoughts were taking the images began to shift. Only this time it was not the mist returning, it was not a replay of the scene again, but it changed into something else entirely.

"What's happening?" Caroline leaned in closer to try and understand how the star-studded night sky and the mossy woods had change into a bedroom with a large four post bed and a slowly dying fire in the stone hearth.

"It looks as though the curse is changing its tactics and upping the ante."

Caroline didn't give his steely tone any mind as the male figure upon the bed shifted in his sleep. The woman beside him dressed in a gauzy robe sat up slowly, her hand reaching below the bed in search of something. Caroline gasped behind her hands as the woman flicked her long red hair over her shoulder as she now held a white oak stake tightly within her grasp.

As quick as her human speed would allow her, the woman straddled Klaus' chest, her arm raised and swinging on a downward thrust.

His eyes snapped open, his hand flashing to stop her just as the stake pierced his skin.

" _Aurora, what are you doing?"_

" _What I was sent here to do." A half-crazy grin split her lips, "Mikael sends his regards."_

" _You've been compelled." His mouth fell open in astonishment._

" _No darling I have not."_

" _Then why? You said…" He gulped past his raw emotions, "You said you loved me. I was to turn you and we were to be happy. You said you wanted to leave with me."_

" _And you told me you took no pleasure in your killings. That you would never hurt me." She sneered, "By pray recall Niklaus, the coach and carriage you and your siblings overtook and slaughtered those inside before coming here. The older man and woman were my parents escorting my Aunt and Uncle and their children back home after a visit to our country estates. You stole my family from me, dishonored their memories by stealing their belongings and residing in their home."_

" _I did not know." Klaus shook his head vigorously, "I am sorry Aurora. Truly I am. Let me spend the rest of my days attempting to atone for what I have taken."_

" _You had best be quick about it Niklaus, for this day is your last." She knocked his hand away plunging the stake towards his heart._

 _Blinking past his pain and tears of sorrow, he quickly knocked the stake to the floor, flipping them over to pin her to the bed._

" _Will you kill me now my love? Will you kill me like you did my family?" Pain shivered across his face making her laugh as he flashed off her. "You cannot, can you? Even knowing that all I said was a lie, that I do not love you are I have spoken, you still cannot take my life." She laughed harder, "Mikael was right, you are nothing but a weak pathetic excuse of a man."_

 _Rage and agony rippled across his face, before the first tear fell he flashed, snatching up the white oak before fleeing the room. He collapsed against the outer wall of the castle, gasping for breath as he tried to choke down his cries of anguish._

 _A familiar hand settled against his shoulder, "Niklaus? What is it? What has happened?"_

 _Grinding his teeth, stuffing his emotions down, he kept his back to his brother, "Aurora was nothing more than a tool for Father. Find Kol and Finn, I shall retrieve Rebekah, so we may flee this place that has become nothing but a bore."_

" _Niklaus…"_

" _Spare me your sentiments Elijah. I know quite well what you thought of her and I do not wish to rehash it all." He spun with a dark grin on his face and his arms spread wide, "You were right brother, as was our Father. Who could ever love one such as I?" He chuckled ominously, "Moreover, why should I love another when all it does is bring pain and deceit."_

" _Niklaus, I know this is difficult and a fresh wound, but you cannot allow it to fester. You cannot allow this to close you off from love. The right woman will come…"_

" _Don't! Mikael is hot on our trail and you wish to wax poetic about the trivial notion of love." He scoffed, "Love is nothing more than a weakness. A tool used for others to gain their upper hand upon us and I for one will never allow another to make me as weak again."_

"Well…That was…intense." Caroline gulped, dreading what would crop up at her next door if _that_ was what his had shown them. Her eyes glanced to Klaus, searching his face for what he must be thinking and feeling after all that. It was odd to say the least, to see him so fresh and full of hope and love, even in the midst of all that pain. To see more than the mere glimpses of the man he tried so hard to hide yet sometimes let slip through the cracks of his carefully constructed walls.

"Yes, I was new to life both in my human years and my early days of immortality. Still holding out for the hopeless acceptance and love of another with a fool's heart." His eyes flicked to her with all their hidden depths and tiny spark of the man she had saw in his memories shined through, "I've learned that love is a complicated and fickle emotion. That people are less reliable than we can hope for."

"I'm no stranger to pain and heartbreak Klaus. Just as I know the feelings of rejection and betrayal, I also know that no one is a fool for thinking and feeling with their hearts. No matter what the outcome might be. It's what makes us who we are. It's what makes us more than monsters."

It confused them both when his door faded away to a white wall, it felt almost anti-climactic after all they had just witnessed. And yet it had Caroline dreading to the tips of her toes over her own door as she slowly turned the handle.

She inhaled a deep shaky breath. She knew this door would be different, could feel it within her bones, but nothing prepared her for this. The dark mist swirling and churning while disembodied voices of her friends, her parents, of herself, echoed and blended together, setting her heart racing.

" _How come the guys that I want, never want me? I'm inappropriate, I always say the wrong thing. I try so hard and I'm never the one. Am I shallow? I don't mean to be. I want to be deep."_

" _Do you ever feel like there's not a person in the world that loves you?"_

" _You're the only one stupid here, and shallow and useless." Damon voice echoed harshly before the sounds of her and Elena took shape._

" _Matt is always going to be in love with you and I'm always going to be the backup."_

" _You're not the back up." Elena tried to sooth her friend._

" _Yes, I am. I'm Matt's Elena backup, I'm you're Bonnie backup."_

" _Now it's about me and Bonnie?" Elena scoffed._

" _You don't get it. Why would you? You're everyone's first choice."_

 _Elena faded as the sound of Caroline and Matt took her place._

" _But it's all going to be okay because I'm going to tell you everything and you're gonna understand why I had to keep it from you and we're gonna be fine."_

" _I don't want to look at you and see what I'm seeing right now." Matt gritted out._

" _Maybe after a while…"_

" _Just make me forget Caroline!" Matt shouted._

" _Are you really going to just pretend that I don't exist?" She asked with trepidation._

" _Yes." Liz replied firmly._

" _How can you hate who I am so much!"_

" _Daddy you can't change who I am. I don't hurt anyone I swear! I can't be fixed."_

" _I'll be okay, Daddy."_

" _You're a vampire sweetheart. I don't think you'll ever be okay again."_

" _Then stay! Just be the love of my life. Love me more than you hate him."_

" _I'm sorry Care. I can't do that." Tyler's voice was filled with a sad determination._

The door across the hall suddenly burst open, shocking them both as the voices that were filled with her hurtful memories began weaving together with his.

" _The big bad wolf. You haven't changed, still hiding behind your play things like a coward. Nobody cares about you anymore boy." Mikael mocked._

" _No one will sit around a table telling stories about the man who couldn't love."_

" _We don't abandon you Nik, you drive us away!" Rebekah's hurt voice accused._

 _Klaus' tearful voice shouted back, "What have I done lately other than cooperate? I bow down to you brother, to make up for daggering you for the greater good of our plan to reclaim our home. Look the other way sister, while you repeat the same cycle with Marcel, falling again for the same man you shouldn't be with. While he controls the empire that we built, that he took. Now I make no excuses for past sins. But in the one moment when you two could have chosen to stand by me, to believe in me, to believe that my intentions were pure, you chose to stand against me."_

" _My whole life I sought the approval I was denied by the man I thought was my Father. You turned me into the weakling he hated. Look at me! You rant, and you rave about the monster I have become, but you Mother, are the author of everything I am."_

" _Her you fight for. Lovely Freya, the daughter you barely know. Yet there was a time when you knew me. As your son. A time before all the disappointments, the revelations of betrayal. There were moments when all you had to do was be my Father and even then, you despised me, didn't you? I want to know why."_

" _I don't know. I just did."_

The parallels swirling around them were telling, far more telling than any words spoken between them could ever be as they gazed into each other's tear-filled eyes. The hope, the despair, the pain. All their own but shared in such a profound way. Stripped and laid bare. Connecting to each other in a way they never imagined possible.

Abruptly the voices rose, melding together until the words could no longer be understood as they formed a loud roar. The white doors disappeared as a wind stronger than any force nature could create bellowed around them, aiding in their flaying hands and arms as the grasped for each other. Hoping to hold to each other through the eye of this terrifying magical storm.

Klaus wrapped an arm around her back, his other pressed the back of her head to his chest, holding her tightly within the shield his arms could provide as the air was sucked from their lungs and their bodies felt as through they were lifted from the very ground they stood.

As suddenly as it started it stopped. The once thinning air came back in a rush as the raging winds dissipated, leaving them both standing in a void of white with nowhere to turn but to the red door.

Their eyes cautiously looked to the door in question as it began shaking and pounding, terrifying unnatural howls came from the other side as if it were alive.

"What do you think it is?" Caroline's trembling voice rumbled against his chest.

The theme of the party had changed once again, and Klaus began fitting the pieces of the puzzle together. The doors had been showing them things that they wished to hide about themselves. Unpleasant things that made them who they are today. It stood to reason that the last door, the single red door, was meant for them both.

"Everything will be fine Caroline." Klaus' deep voice attempted to sooth her as he stepped away from her towards the imposing door.

"Wait!" Caroline dashed forward, grasping his arm to stop him, "You can't just open it. We should plan what we're going to do first. We don't even know what's behind there!"

"I'm fairly certain this will be our toughest obstacle yet, but we will see this through together Caroline. We will stand together through whatever this door tosses our way. But we won't know what we will face until we open it."

"Right. Okay." She placed her hand on top of his, "We do this together."

With a soft grin at each other, they both tried to open the door only the handle wouldn't budge. No matter how hard they tried, they were met with more resistance as the pounding on the other side grew heavier.

Caroline tore her hand away from the handle, growling in frustration, "I don't understand! Why won't the damn thing open? How can we face what's on the other side if we can't get to it?"

"Each door we've encountered, we've had to admit something about ourselves before it faded away." Klaus contemplated, rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "It stands to reason that whatever it is that we have to admit at this one must be something huge. Something we never wished to say in the outside world. Something we've buried so deep that the thought of speaking it aloud frightens us to our cores that we hide from it, hence why it must be said _before_ the door will open. And since there is only one, suffice to say we can be sure that it must be something to do with each other." He grasped her shoulders as she began backing away from him holding her hands up in denial, shaking her gently to force her to meet his stare, "You need to do this Caroline. If we are to break this curse _we_ must do this. Tell me what you hide from me that has you running."

"I never wanted you to leave okay!"

The door rattled along with the force of her yelling. Thrusting her arms up between his, she knocked them off her, pacing the small space as she yelled.

"I was devastated that you left without saying goodbye to me. It was like everything you had done; all your charm and gifts and attention, were nothing but the game I always thought it was. No, wait, you want _honesty?_ How's this for honesty." She sneered to cover her hurt, "I didn't just _think_ it was, I was _afraid_ that it was. And it hurt. It hurt _so_ much. But it's not like I could tell anyone right?" She scoffed, "Not when everyone was singing hymns about you being gone. So I had to be good little follower Caroline and fake smile that you had left. Pretend that I wasn't upset that it was all a lie!"

The door pounded and rattled loudly, and she eyes it hatefully.

"Still now enough? Okay how's this. I sent you my graduation invitation as a desperate cry to see if you'd even show up. It was as much of a test for you as it was for me. If you showed, maybe just maybe you were being honest with me. If you didn't," she laughed scathingly, "well then, I was just fooled by a guy yet again. Just another backup to keep someone busy until something else better came along. But could you just show up?" She narrowed her eyes accusingly at him, flailing her arms about, "No! Of course not! You had to be all confusing with your freeing Tyler and your however long it takes crap! I was right back to square one with you! Does he, or doesn't he? It was so beyond frustrating!"

Klaus tried to interrupt, wanting to defend and explain his actions.

"No! I'm not finished! Because you went and did it all _yet again_! Showing up, leaving your five-hundred years of revenge fantasy just to walk around the damn woods with me with your, _I want your confession_ bullshit and then promising to leave. I never meant for it to go as far as it did, but it just felt _so_ good to kiss you. So…so… _right."_ Tears built in her eyes as the fight drained out of her, the hurt and anguish taking over, nearly slaying him where he stood. Her voice cracking, "and then when it was all done, as we got dressed I honestly believed that you'd be the one person who would stay. That you'd make some cheesy comment, with that damn smirk on your face, about how Whitmore, where you knew damn well I would be, was not in Mystic Falls so therefore you wouldn't be breaking your promise. But you didn't. You just brushed a kiss to my head, said goodbye and left. And it _killed_ me. Because once again, silly little Caroline was not enough. I don't even know why I ever thought I would be for you."

The door suddenly fell silent as she spun around, placing her back towards him and silently wept into her hands.

Klaus gulped, knowing that moment of silence, before the howling started back up again, meant that she truly had admitted her deepest secret and fears when it came to him and her feelings towards him. Her half of this blasted curse was well on its way to being broken, and now, the only way out would be for him to do the same.

"You were never meant to happen Caroline." He started off softly, "You were never meant to become more than a beautiful distraction, a thrilling challenge in a lengthy list that are easily forgotten." When her shoulders began to shake under the force of her tears he knew he was mucking it all up. Placing a hand to her shoulder and forcing her to face him, he pleaded with her.

"You misunderstand me. All the things you were _supposed_ to be are not what you are. With every smile, with every word, no matter how scathing or feigned, you tied me up in more knots than I could possibly escape. And then the most miraculous thing happened. I found I didn't want to escape. I looked forward to each and every moment, real or predetermined, because for me it meant I was able to spend just a little more time bathed in your light." His soft smile was dashed beneath a snarl as his eyes filled with traitorous tears as her words came back to haunt him. He latched onto her arms, shaking her, "You think that it did not kill me to walk away from you? You think I left without a backwards glance or a plan formulating within my head? I had every intention of coming back! Of doing just as you predicted and slyly running into you at that coffee shop you liked to frequent around the corner from your dorm." Her eyes widened at his admission, but he still pressed on, "I already had a plan set to stage a few coincidental meetings until things in New Orleans took a dangerous turn and all I could think of was keeping you safe, even if it meant staying away from the one person I longed to just be near." He gently ran the backs of his fingers down her cheek, whispering past the emotions clogging his throat, "My biggest torment when it comes to you Caroline is that I will forever be ready for you while you will never be ready for me. That even if I am granted a chance with you that _I_ will be the one to discover that the promise of all your sweet whispered words will not be enough to keep me from damaging that chance as I have every other person in my life. That _I_ am the one who is not enough for you."

Klaus laughed harshly, taking a few hated steps away from her, "Look at me! The man who couldn't love. The man who isn't loved. The man who drives his family away. The hybrid who lived by and claimed that love was a weakness. That we as vampires do not care and do not feel." He closed in on her, his hands gently cupping her face as he tenderly proclaimed, "But if love is a weakness, then let me be weak. Let me drown in the weakness I carry only for you." He gulped, brushing the backs of his hand over her wet cheek, "I love you Caroline."

Caroline inhaled sharply, her eyes searching his finding nothing but the truth of his words. Seeing the fear that she would push him away. The fear that teetered towards happiness when she grasped his face, pulling him down ready to crash their lips together.

Their lips were just a breath away from touching when the air was sucked out of the room. The door crashing open, sending splinters and shards through the air, the wind blowing them apart.

Until they knew nothing but darkness.

They both woke with a gasp, sucking in their much-needed air before slowly turning their heads to face each other on the bed inside Klaus' bedroom. Their eyes stayed locked together as Klaus shifted to his side, propping his body up on one arm as the other trembled slightly on its way to cup her face. His fingers brushed over her skin and through her hair, bringing a shaky inhale from her lips as she leaned into his touch.

Ever so slowly, as if afraid he would be rejected now that they had broken the curse and were back in the real world, Klaus leaned in closer until their breath mingled as one.

Neither paid much attention as the door to the bedroom silently closed, nor did they hear Freya stop his siblings from entering the room with a pleased smile on her face as they were too caught up in the moment happening between them.

Caroline raised her hand, brushing her fingers across his stubbled cheek then slide around the back of his neck. The moment her fingers combed through the ends of his hair, his lips softly brushed against hers.

Moaning at the touch of his lips, she curved her body along his making Klaus groan as her tongue flicked out, searching and begging for entrance that he gladly surrendered. Her leg bent, sliding along his hip as he eased himself half on top of her.

Breathing heavily, Caroline pulled away from their kiss, her head tilting back at the delicious friction his thigh brought to her jean covered center. Unable to have his lips and tongue away from her taste for long, Klaus took the open opportunity to scatter kisses filled with nips and licks along the alabaster column of her throat.

A small hint of reason mixed with a dash of guilt flooded Caroline's mind. Gripping the back of his head she pulled his hair gently, knowing it would be enough to gain his attention. She mourned the loss of his lips against her skin and judging by the sensual knowing smirk on his face, she did not hide it well.

"Wait!" She panted, stalling him so she could try and gather her thoughts enough to say what she needed to tell him without making a mess of everything, "I can't say it back." She winced, upset that she just blurted it out without any form of finesse. "I mean, that's not to say I didn't like what you said, because who doesn't like to hear that someone…well you know. It's just that, well, I'm…ugh." Caroline groaned pressing her head back against the pillow, shielding her eyes from seeing the disappointment she was sure would be on his face with her arm, mumbling, "And now I've completely ruined everything. We were on our way to having some hot hybrid-vampire sex which I totally and complete messed up with my insane need to ramble. Which I'm still doing…so feel free to leave the room and I'll just make a hasty escape out the window when you're gone."

Caroline held her breath, counting to ten in her head and almost dared to peek at him when she didn't feel his body leave hers. No instead, she was tortured a little more when he shifted his body into the cradle of her thighs, his very pronounced and still extremely aroused bulge rubbed her in the most sinful way causing her to bite her lower lip hard to keep from embarrassing herself further by moaning.

"Caroline." Klaus sang her name, shaking his head with amusement at her flushed cheeks and adorable personality. He leaned down, settling his body on top of hers with his arms framing her head. "Look at me Love."

As if entranced by his soft tones, her arm fell from her face with a will of its own. Her eyes cautiously peeking up at him, expecting his face to be poised and ready to mock her only to find in a stunned surprise a soft look of understanding.

"I have come to an understanding and acceptance where my feelings for you are involved. I've gone through the stages of fighting against them, denying them and trying to snuff them out only to come to the profound realization that it does not matter what I do, nor does it matter the distance between us. They are as real and as permanent as my status of being the most powerful creature on the planet."

She rolled her eyes at him and his cocky ego bringing a smile to his kiss swollen lips.

"Just as I know how deeply ingrained my love for you is within me, I know that you are not ready to make such a wonderous declaration to me. Not yet anyways." He teased with a confident smirk, "But believe me when I say Sweetheart, that one day you will."

She curved an eyebrow at him, "You sound so sure. As if it's inevitable."

"Undeniably."

"Really, and why is that?"

"Because as the most powerful creature on the planet," he teased, letting the full weight of all she had admitted to him bath over him, giving him the confidence to not only speak aloud but to mean every word he said, "I not only have an eternity of time on my hands but also a plethora of weapons hidden within my arsenal to ensure that you fall desperately in love with me."

"Oh? Care to share any of those mysterious weapons?"

His smile took a deviously carnal turn, "The possibilities are endless, though I can think of one I could share right now." Klaus rolled his hips, hitting her in just the right way to pull a keening cry from her petal soft lips. His tongue paved a path up her neck, pausing to whispering hotly in her ear, "I believe you said something along the lines of hot hybrid-vampire sex." Her nails dug into his back, tearing tiny holes in his shirt. "And I am not one to disappoint."

Caroline's eyes glittered with lust, a smirk curving her lips as he pulled back, placing them nose to nose, "Then what are you waiting for? _Have at it_ _Sweetheart_."

Her easy flirt, the lust blatantly displayed on her face and the way her body arched into his set him a blaze.

Their clothes were torn from their bodies with hands that moved with a burning passion. Neither pausing until both were stripped bare. Klaus sat back on his heels as he took in the mouthwatering sight of Caroline sprawled naked, her chest heaving upon his bed. His eyes took in every inch of the vision before him, filling in the blanks that his wild late-night fantasies had missed. The way her hair curled around her face, framing her in a golden halo. How the burgundy of his sheets gave way to the illusion that she was made of the most delicate of porcelain. The way the natural scent of her arousal, of _her_ , blended in the perfect mixture with his as if she belonged here. The way it felt to have her here and not just in his mind's eye. It was better than his most vivid fantasy could provide.

"I'd like to toy with that old cliché, take a picture it will last you longer, but I'm almost afraid to." She tilted her head sweetly smiling with a tease as she glided her foot along his leg, "Are there any sketchbooks of the scandalous variety that I should know about?"

"I was tempted a time or twenty, but I would never draw you in such a manor without your expressed permission." His fingertips danced along the upper swell of her breasts, dipping down her cleavage before following an imaginary line from the valley, cresting over the luscious mount to toy with its rosy peak. "Permission that I hope to gain and coax from you someday in the future."

Caroline widened her legs, smirking in delight as his eyes traveled down to her glistening core, his breath shuttering from his lungs, "Well then, what are you waiting for? Coax away."

Swiping his lips intrigued with her apparent willingness to agree but shuffling the thoughts away for another time. He dove down, fusing their lips together in a kiss that was all tongue and teeth. His hands paving a path up her legs, one continuing its upward journey to cup her breast as the other veered inward towards the very heat of her.

His fingers were instantly met by the silky wetness of her excitement, feeling how deeply ready she was for him. But he wanted her to be mindless in her need. He wanted her panting and so lost in her lust for him that it was all she could think of or feel.

He smiled against her lips, swallowing her whimpers as his thumb circled her throbbing clit. The tips of his fingers teasing with shallow dips into her core as he tweaked and rubbed her harden nipple.

But Caroline's hands were not sitting idle either. She scratched down his sides, sliding inward at his hips, grasping his swollen weeping member. She drove him mad as she alternated with her feather light touches to the underside of his shaft to her tighten fist clasping around him. In response he dove hid middle finger in deep, pressing his thumb in hard tight circles.

It turned into a game between them, teasing and taunting the other with light touches against powerful strokes. Endeavoring to get the other to cave and beg first, but as they had learned of each other before, they both enjoyed the game far too much to be the one to cave.

Sweat trickled down Klaus' face, Caroline's legs shook with the force of her need when they both snapped. Pulling their hands away at the same instant, her legs wrapping around him as their hips met in a familiar dance that had him buried to the hilt within her depths.

Klaus fell forward with a low groan, his hands braced beside her head, her nails digging into his back as he thrusted against her rolling hips. Their lips were just a breath apart, trembling with shaky gasps and harsh pants. Klaus, with a devious smirk, began rolling his hips against her clit with every downward thrust, bringing a long keening cry from her.

Not to be outdone Caroline snaked her hands to his shoulders, placing one foot to the bed for leverage as she flipped them over, crashing his back to the bed. Klaus marveled at the sight above him. The sunlight filtering in through the open window bathed her in a golden hue. Her long locks brushing his inner thighs, her breasts bouncing as she sat up and rode him to her heart's content.

As wild and amazing as it all felt, it still wasn't enough. Klaus braced his feet to the bed, grasping her hips, lifting and flipping her to her knees. Caroline had just enough time to steady herself by taking ahold of the iron headboard before he plunged back into her heated core.

Both groaned deeply at the feel of the other as Klaus leaned over her, placing his hands to the headboard beside her whitening knuckles, his hips roughly slapping against the flesh of her backside.

Feeling her body being to tremble and tighten around him, Klaus ran his hands down her arms, over her breasts, stopping with one at her hip and the other pressed at her heart, his hips never breaking their stride as he sat up, pulling her up with her back flush against his chest.

One hand held her close, feeling the erratic pounding of her heart as the other hands dipped down to her clit. Caroline flung her arm around the back of his neck, turning her head to smash their lips together as her other hand drifted down to where their bodies were joined, feathering over his hand still working her into tight knots to slide down further, her palm resting against his cock as it made shallow thrusts, her fingers gently placing pressure against his tightening sack.

She felt his legs begin to shake against the backs of her thighs seconds before it all came crashing down. Their lips tore away from each other, shouting their ecstasy as their bodies trembled and shook under its force.

As they crashed to the bed Klaus used what little strength he had left to turn them, pulling her body in close to his as Caroline rested her head to his sweaty chest.

As they rested comfortably in the silence and caught their breaths while coming down from their high, Klaus' mind began to wonder what this meant for them. Would she leave once this was all finished? Get dressed and walk away from him? Deny all that she had said and felt to leave him without her spirit and light once again? Would he be able to let her go, if that was what she truly wanted, after having her again?

Caroline slide back to the curve of his shoulder, peeking at him with a soft smile that he returned. Though she could see all the disquiet and questions his mind held with his eyes. Brushing her fingers over his chest in light circles, "So I heard that New Orleans is a city full of food, music, art and culture," She gazed into his eyes that shimmered with a breathless hope, "how would you feel about showing me around a little?"

She giggled at his stunned face, prompting him to smile so widely that his dimples seemed deeper than she had ever seen them.

He brushed her hair behind her ear with his smile still intact, "That would be my greatest pleasure Caroline." He leaned in as she rose to met him, their lips connecting in a soft promise of what the future would hold for them.

* * *

Would love to hear what you think.


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